Blaze's Quest
by An0n Author
Summary: Blaze has lost his memory and lived in the village of Eden. Through his stay there, he had some memory flashes of his old life and started to wonder who he really is and what his life was like. When he meets the Elgang, he goes along with them to help them in their quest while hoping that he learns more about his history. What he finds is something that no one had expected.
1. Chapter 1

**Me: This is my first fanfiction ever! YAY!**

**Everyone: How long did it take you to decide to make one?  
**

**Me: About 2 days and some coaxing from Mayumi and Kiyo (Kiyosama and Seraphic Nightmare)  
**

**Elsword: So this is going to be your first... bet it will suck.  
**

**Me: Hey Chung can I barrow that destroyer of yours?  
**

**Chung: You're the first person to ask me if you can barrow it sure *gives me destroyer*  
**

**Me: *Dark aura surrounding me* You better start running Elbaka :D  
**

**Elsword: pssstt the destroyer is to heavy for you its not as if you can do one of Chung's power attacks. Right?  
**

**Me: *Twirls destroyer around* hmmm pretty light and easy to use :3  
**

**Elsword: *Sweat drops*  
**

**Me: SHOOTING STAR!  
**

**Elsword: OH CRA-  
**

**Anyways this is going to be my first Elsword fanfiction so point out any mistakes I made and any tips on how I could improve my writing.  
**

* * *

**Blazes POV.  
**

Where I come from and who I am is a mystery to me. I have no memory of ever being in at that village I was found in, nor do I have any memory of how I got there and who where my parents. Heck I can't even remember my own name. The only things that I can remember was after I had regained consciousness after this village had found me on their under a tree. They had told me that one person was walking along going for a stroll when he had stumbled upon me in under a tree with ragged cloths on and a shallow breath. He had rushed me back to the village for medical aid, and if he didn't I wouldn't be alive now. Here I am sitting in a bed wondering where am I, who am I, and where did I come from. I have only been awake for about minute when this man came into the room.

"Ahhh I see that you are awake now, I am Banquoe, mayor of this small village called Eden,(I know they don't exist but I put them in for the story.)" he said in a friendly tone. "Might I ask who your's might be?"

"I... I don't remember." I said softly.

"Do you remember anything like your parents, where you came from, or where you came from." Banquoe asked.

I gave hard thought on those three questions. "I.. I-I-I don't know, I don't remember anything of my past." I said. I turned to meet his face to see that he was deep in thought. He started to bob his head up and down and made eye contact, I could see him flinch as he discovered something surprising about me.

"I see I see... you have quite the strange case but also some very strange eyes too, they look as if they had some ire to them." he said. In my fiery red eyes, you could see what looks like an imprint of a flame. "Since you have no recollection of where you where born, lets make you a citizen of Eden, but with out a name you won't be able to become one. What name would you like to have that people refer to?" Banquoe asked.

I spent the next minute mulling over what I have heard and what name I want to have when I remember he said that my eyes had an imprint of a flame when the word came to me, Blaze. "I want to be called Blaze." I sad confidently.

"Blaze... hmm an interesting name for an interesting boy. Blaze it is, welcome into Eden's family." Banquoe said happily.

* * *

It's been over 4 yours since I obtained the name of Blaze, 4 years of mystery about my own past, 4 years of acceptance. At first everyone had avoided me and treated me like an out cast or an unwanted guest, but over time they had slowly given up trying to ignore me, and trying to accept me into their society. For I work with everyone to bring in the seasons crops, I work to help make the seasons crops, and I help to improve this village. Soon I no longer was looked at as a stranger, but more of a long lost friend. Through my stay with Eden, I had also regained in health to find that I was extremely fit and I wondered what my past was like, what or who I was before I had lost my memories. Today was the day that all the men went out to harvest this years crops and I tagged along with them. I met up with one of my friends I made in the 4 years named Mark. Mark was my first best friend that I had made during the first f year of me staying in Eden. If it wasn't for him I would be a lot more lonely 'cause after he had befriended me, everyone else started to think that I wasn't that bad of a person. We started to chat about how we think the year will turn out, how well the crops will be, and what we will do next year. After harvesting all of the invaluable crops we started to head back to Eden when something unexpected happened.

"ATTACK!" One of the bandits yelled as a bandits after bandits charged at us swords and pistols drawn catching us completely off guard. In the confusion of the rushing attackers, everyone started to get things under control and armed them selves to defend their precious cargo.

"Blaze get to the village and gather more men to help defend the wagons!" one of the men screamed as he blocked a sword swing. "Move it Blaze! GO GO GO!" as he goes on the offensive.  
I was completely stunned by the ambush that I nearly didn't hear him yelling at me to get help. I bolted past the second wagon but was stopped shot at the from of the first wagon as two bandits blocked my way. I turned around to to try and go around them but two more of them blacked my escape. Caught in between four bandits had shot a fear through out my body. Time seemed to slow as men screaming in pain and the clash of steel on steel echoed though the forest. I could multiple villagers laying in their own puddle of blood unmoving and others that where at the mercy of a bandit. Time slowed to a crawl as I close my eyes and the sound of combat was replaced with the rhythm of my own hearth beat. Bu-bum... the flash of the bandits cutting down a villager flashed through my head. Bu-bum... an image of Mark fighting for his life against unbeatable odds. Bu-bum A flash of a memory came to me. A memory of my past.

I opened eyes to a half lidded and looked straight into the eyes of one of the bandits that where sneering at me. His sneer quickly turned into a frown of terror as he peered into my eyes. He could see the imprint of a flame in my eyes, that imprint had grown and started to move like a real flame would, dancing in the center of my eyes. He lunged at me but I stepped to the side of him bringing down my elbow on the back of his head. Another bandit tried to stab me form the read but side stepped slightly to have his arms come through between my arms and side. I clamped down hard on both of his arms and started to punch the living daylights out of him while taking hist pistol out of his holster and sword out of his hinds. The other two bandits charged me form both sides and slashed at me high and low which I just jumped so I was parallel the blades, having one of them graze a strand of hair. Landing I launched a counter attack of a hail of bullets and sword slashes.

After dispatching the bandits that where in front of me, I quickly ran around the wagons taking out any bandit that I saw. I then noticed that there was one small bandit and three big bandits that were toying with Mark with an injury on his right arm, swollen, eye, and looks like he will pass out from blood loss and the exhaustion of the fight. I quickly ran towards the four big bandits leaping in the air and plunged my sword in the back of the big bandits that had his big club raised to deliverer the final strike on my friend. Riding that bandit to the ground, I used my sword as a pivot point to swing myself around in a 360° spin, kicking two of the bandits in the face and flung myself at the the last standing bandit with the pistol raging. Landing in a roll, I did a quick back flip avoiding a downward strike from a club. Another downward strike at me caused the ground to shake from the force of the blow and leaves of the surrounding trees to rattle. I quickly ran up the club that was still imbedded into the ground to and kneed the big bandit in the face putting him out of the battle. Jumping to avoid a strike at my legs is soon fallowed with a lung for my sword that was still imbedded in the the back of that unlucky soal. Rolling into a defensive position the last bandit had saw that he was out matched and tried to run away just to be caught by me.

"Take me to the one who had ordered this raid!" I yelled into the bandits face. I could see the terror in the small bandit as he looked straight into my eyes. The terror the bandit was feeling was nothing he had ever experienced in his that all he could do was nod and take me to the master mind. I hid behind a tree as the bandit had entered where the big boss bandit was waiting.

"What are you doing back here!? You're supposed to be raiding that convoy of wagons!" said a deep graveled voice. "Or unless you here to tell me something had gone wrong right?" he game the bandit an evil grin that he almost couldn't speak.

"S-s-s-sir, w-w-we had some unseen p-p-problems." the small bandit had barley stuttered out.

"Problems!? What kind of problem?" he said in his big booming voice which was my cue to step out.

"I'm the problem." I said coldly.

"Oh so you're the problem eeehhhh? I was expecting some knight in armor, or maybe even a villager that has some, but a little kid? You got to be joking," he said in laughter. I just give him cold hard stare. "Ooohhh, the strong silent type huh?" he sneered.  
I was so focused in that battle that I hadn't noticed that I didn't notice Makr come in behind me to assist me in this fight but apparently the bandit leader did.

"You won't be so silent when I have you on your knees begging for your life," he yelled as he ran at me. I got into a defensive stance when he ran past me just to hear a cry of help from Mark, "Blaze!"

I spun around quickly to see that the bandit leader had Mark in his grasp with his sword to Marks neck. "Or I might have you begging to spare your friends life," he sneered. "But I will cut you a deal, let me kill you and I will let your friend go or I can kill him and kill you after that!" he spat.

"Don't do it Blaze, don't get yourself killed over me!" Mark yelled.

"Silence fool!," The captain yelled hitting Mark in the head.

Thoughts had raced through my head thinking of what I can do to defeat the captain but also save Mark. Scenario after scenario flashed through his mind yet none of them had worked or the risk was to big. Everything seemed hopeless when another memory came back as these words.

"FLAMING BARRAGE!" I yelled, the fire imprint in my eyes started to glow and started to get bigger. I closed my eyes and flames started to engulf my body along with giving my sword and pistol the the element of fire. The bandit Captain stared at me blinking multiple times trying to figure out to what just happened when I opened my eyes which where stark flaming white too see what the effect of what I had said. I looked at my palm with my sword, which soon closed over the hilt of my blade looking up to see the terror in both Marks and the bandit Captain eyes. I ran at him with incredible speed I seem to have just teleport firing off 3 shots into the bandits arm releasing Mark. As I he released Mark, I had gotten a hold onto him and placed him safely. Making sure mark was safe, I then ran streight at the captain which had his sword ready to slice me but before he could I feinted left and he lost sight of me. With him disoriented, I ran behind him jumped into the air to bring down the final blow. As he turned he was blinded by the sun and could only see an outline of me with fiery white eyes coming down sword swinging at his head At the last second I diverted the fatal swing to his arm, severely injuring him.

"P-please no more," he begged on his hands and knees defeated.

"Promise me this, you will never, ever go raid anyone from now on. If I found out that you raided again, I will come for you and finish this job. Got it!?" I said to his face.

"Yes, yes I will never go raid travelers again." he said. "But this won't be the last you see me." he said under his breath. the bandit captain got up recalled all the bandits that where alive and ordered a retreat.

The fire that had surrounded me had disappeared leaving no burns. Only some scratches where obtained when the raid had started. I looked back at Mark who was starring jaw dropped and wide eyed. "How did you do that?" he asked.

"I'm not sure how I did that but what ever I did, it saved our lives, and saved our crops... Oh god we need to get back to the convoy of wagons and help the wounded," I said as we both hurried back to the wagons. Everyone was banged up, and some of the crops was lost from the raid. In the attack 7 people out of the 24 had died and the rest where injured. When me and Mark had arrived back to the convoy, I was congratulated for taking out the leader and also saving their lives. When we got back to the village I was asked to go see Banquoe.

"You asked to see me sir?" I asked.

"Yes yes. I heard of that achievement that you got for defending that convoy and I am glad that you could do so." Banquoe said.  
"But that's not what I summoned you for. I asked for you because I have a feeling you are confused to who you where before you had lost your memories. You had learned that you had training as a soldier and a great one at that. What I am asking is how are you copping with knowing some of your past through today's events?"

"I don't know. I know now that I was trained to fight, but to fight as? Was I trained to protect others or was I trained for attacking others like a soldier."

"There, that was what I was worried about. When you train and move on with your life I wanted to say that you should be wise with your decisions so you will go down the right path. That's all I wanted to tell you, may you lead yourself down the right path." I parted form Banquoe and started to walk towards the house that I was staying mulling around in thought for what I will become, a person of protection or a person of attacking,

* * *

It's been over 3 since the battle with the bandits, and all has been quite since. I have now been training in the use of pistol and sword teaching myself and remembering fragments of how I fought with them, how I would wield them. Through training I have become more precise, less clumsy, and more natural when wielding the two weapons. Though though that day that the bandits had raided, it did change my life for I know now who I was and what will my actions inflict to who I am. Me and Mark had become more distant lately, but I can't blame him for what he saw me as or what I used to be. Though from that battle, Mark is held in the medical building for at least a week for his wounds to heal up. In those three days I had always wondered where i come form, who I am, and what was my life like before all of this? I want to go out and try to solve this mystery, I will ask Banquoe tomorrow for some guidance of where I might start looking after I get some sleep.

* * *

I must have only slept for at least a few hours when knocking was heard at my door. "I'm awake, what's the problem?" I asked as I got my gear on. on the other side of the door I could hear a frantic voice yelling "Bandits! Bandits are raiding the village!"

After hearing that, that, I burst through my front door to see that houses where on fire, people are running all over the place with buckets to put out the fire, and shops are getting raided by bandits. 'Well there goes the plan of going out to find my past,' I thought to myself as I ran through the village. All throughout the village is a wide spread panic from the fires, but still not a single bandit is in sight, this is too weird not seeing a single bandit yet multiple houses are on fire, where could they all be. As I ran around the town horror struck when I heard someone yell that the medical building is on fire and there are still people trapped inside. I ran toward the medical building just to see it completely on fire with people banging on the windows for help. The horror of seeing those people trapped inside the burning building was just unbearable. When I took a quick scan to determine where everyone was so I could go rescue them, I saw Mark at the window looking at me. My voice is caught in my throat as I see Mark smile a farewell smile before turning to see the fire creeping closer to him.

I ran for the building just to have the entire thing explode in front of me severely burning my arm. I look in horror as the building collapses onto itself trapping everyone and my best friend to a fiery death. "MARK!" I screamed. With tears threatening to spill out, I heard laughter, laughter that I could never forget, it was that same captain that had raided us before.

"So, you think your so tough kid? You think you can protect everyone!? Well welcome to reality kid 'cause the ones you loved are now gone, and you couldn't do anything about it!" He spat at me. Through the rage of losing my best friend I charged him blindly just to be knocked back away from him. "Is that the best you can do? God how was I beaten by a little no one like you. I won't even waste me effort in trying to kill you, I'll just let my bandits have their fun with you while I watch for enjoyment of seeing you die a slow death."

Before I knew it, I was surrounded by hundreds of bandits ranging from small sword totting ones to big club wielding thugs. They advance on me wave after wave, it seems like every one I kill, 4 others take its place to get after me. At this rate I will tire out and start making mistakes that could be fatal. For 10 minutes I had fought fought and fought but they keep on coming. As I parried a stab for me a hot stinging sensation started to come form my upper arm. I peaked a glance at it to find that a neat deep gash was created from a sword. Killing of 3 more bandits, a lucky one got a slash on my legs. Soon I felt a searing pain come form the back of my head, my vision tunnels into two tubes hearing a roar of achievement as blacked out. I regained consciousness just to find that the beast who had gotten the lucky shot to my head tower over my club raised ready to strike down ending my time. But it never came to that as 3 green arrows are now sticking out of that bandits head. Confusion was followed as combat started to break out at the edge of the giant group and worked its way towards the center, who ever they are I just hope that they can finish the job that I had started.

* * *

**Me: DONE!**

**Everyone: Finally  
**

**Me: Yipe the first chapter is finally done and man that's probable the most I have written in only 3 hours... or was it two days I cant remember XD  
**

**Elsword: But where do we fall into place?  
**

**Eve: Ya!  
**

**Chung: YA!  
**

**Raven: Meh... *opens a magazine*  
**

**Me _  
**

**Aisha: Ya!  
**

**Rena: YA!  
**

**Me: Calm down you guys you'll be in the next chapter.  
**

**Everyone but me and Raven: Fine  
**

**Proto: Where do I fall in all of this?  
**

**Me: Well since they're 4 boys and only 3 girls I think I am going to add you  
**

**Ara: What about me?  
**

**Me: I'm not good at guessing what the you as a character might be I have a feeling that if I make you different than what you are in the game it will come bite me in the ass soon.**

**Ara: Aw well I'm going back to Mayumi then chow~!  
**

**Anyway R and R please this is my first story and I would love your feed back.  
**


	2. Chapter 2

**Me: Ok everyone a new character is coming in**

**Everyone: Who is it?  
**

**Chibella: Hello guys.  
**

**Elsword: Your adding HER to the story?  
**

**Me: Ya and?  
**

**Elsword: Well they're now 5 girls and 4 boys if you add Proto to the story.  
**

**Proto: *Evil aura* You aren't going to cut me from the story right?  
**

**Chibella: *Dark aura* You aren't going to cut me out of the story are you?  
**

**Me: *Sweat drops*  
**

***Chibella and Proto stare at each other with lighting sparking between their eyes*  
**

**Me: Well I'll post a Poll for people to decide if Chibella goes, Proto goes or they both stay XD I vote they stay  
**

**The classes are all standard now and what job classes they will choose will be determined in future chapters. But I am hoping to end up with a:  
**

**Elsword: Rune Slayer 18  
**

**Aisha: Void Princes 19  
**

**Eve: If pole succeeds then Code Nemesis if not Code Empress... Proto or Epic Butler and Maid 20  
**

**Chung: Grr... Big Ass cannon or Duel Revolvers regular pikachu ears sad pikachu ears... Deadly Chaser =w= I hate making choices 19  
**

**Raven: Blade Master 23  
**

**Rena: Night Watcher 20  
**

**Blaze: Gun Master 18  
**

**Chibella: If poll succeeds then a Moon Deity 18  
**

**To avoid confusion everyone starts out as their standard class and ill advance in the future.  
**

**Anyway onto the next chapter.  
**

* * *

_"Where am I?" thinking out loud as I looked around the empty, almost cavernous black space. "How did I get here and what was I-" stopping in mid sentence when the horrors from that night came to me. "Oh god, it's got to be a dream. It couldn't have happened, it shouldn't have happened!" I yelled as tears started to pour down from my eyes. "Oh Mark, you didn't deserve to die that way, you didn't deserve to die by **HIM**!" I spat the last words as guilt and sorrow crept into my mind. Images of my childhood friend flashed through out my mind adding to the guilt that was consuming me. "What kind of a defender am I when you couldn't even protect your own friend and village." drowning in remorse a chuckle was heard off in the distance.  
_

_"Little do you know how special you really are." a deep voice echoed through the room.  
_

_"Huh? Who's there!?" I yelled  
_

_"For now time will only tell what your true colors are." This had dumbstruck me to what the voice had said.  
_

_"Wait! Time will show my true colors? What does that mean!" I start running of into random direction. "Tell me!"  
_

I awoke thoughts racing as I sat up in an unfamiliar room. I took in the surroundings of the room and thought that what I saw was all just a dream, a nightmare more likely when I had noticed the bandages that where wrapped around my arm and leg. 'What did that voice mean saying that I am special? What does he mean that time will tell my true colors?' Further thoughts where ceased when the door was opened to be met with a girl with long yellowish green hair, green eyes, knee high white boots, and a dress with a smile that would make any demon

"Oh, you're up!" she said excitedly. "I was wondering when you were going to wake up. By the way, the names Rena." she extends her hand an a cheery voice

"Nice to meet you Rena, I'm Blaze

"Nice to meet you Blaze."

"Where are we?"

"We are in the town of Elder."

"How many days have I been out?"

"You've been out for two days."

"Two days!?" I had been out for that long of a time!? "What about the village, how is Eden?" her expression softened into a sad one.

"Well it's just... just..." she looked away. "I'm sorry but when we got you out of that mess, there was nothing we could do. The village almost completely burned down by then and the villagers had either fled or was killed." The initial shock of the news was evident on my face but was quickly replaced with a darker one. Laying back down on the bed is all I could do. So many emotions where racing through me ranging from shock to sorrow, then anger, rage, then revenge. I knew what I had to do, i needed to take revenge on the people that had killed my best friend and the people that had been my family for the first four years of my life. sitting back up and looking at the greened haired girl I just noticed that she had pointed ears. "You're an Elf? I thought they where killed off by the Nasods, what are you doing out here?"

"I was sent on a mission by my elders to go retrieve Ruben's stolen El crystal."

"The El was stolen!?"

"Yes and there are five others that are along with the my mission to find the El. Matter of fact, they should be coming back form a mission any second now." she said as she left my room to let me change.

I got out of bed, got my cloths favoring my uninjured leg as I half walked half limped down stairs to the dinning room. As I got half way down the stairs, I could hear the door swing open and Rena greeting everyone entering telling them that I have woke up. As I made it down the stairs, I was meet by the eyes 5 pairs of new eyes. One of them was a red headed boy with red and brown pants and shirt carrying a sword on his back. his eyes where red like mine yet had he had the a confident tone to them, almost arrogant. The next was a purple haired girl wearing a pink dress and a staff with purple eyes that. The next was a taller one with raven black hair, golden yellow eyes with a look as if he is going to kill me, and that big robotic arm of his, which could only be of nasod origin, didn't help but give him an even more creepy look to him. There was a white haired girl trailing in behind him with a big gem in her head fallowed by a black drone and a white drone and only one word had came to my mind when I saw her, Nasod. Lastly there was this one boy with blond hair in the bowl cut style wearing this white and blue armor that would make people look twice. Not to mention that giant cannon he was carrying! That thing must weigh a ton and he wields it like it was a small pistol/club with little effort.

"The red headed boy name is Elsword, purple haired girl is Aisha, scary boy over there is Raven, the quite white haired girl is Eve and the one in armor is Chung." I could see that Raven was blushing at Rena's introduction.

"Nice to meet you all, my name is Blaze."

"Nice to meet you Blaze." Aisha walked up to me and shook my hands then started to stare at my eyes. "What peculiar eyes you have. Hey Rena have you ever noticed that he has this little flame imprint in his eyes?" Aisha asked.

"Wait let me see," she said rushing over. "Aw that's so KAWAII~! Rena stated while glomping me. I cringed as I landed on my injured arm.

"Come on Rena ease of this guy, we just met him and he's injured." said Eve as she helped me up. "Also judging by the injuries that you had obtained from that nights battle, you have still two more days of rest before you can make a full recovery."

"Good I can finally see how well you can fight." Elsword muttered in the corner.

"Though I came up with some interesting scans when I was determining how sever your wounds where, my scans said that you where a Nasod. After running diagnostic on my scaners, they said that you where human, do you have any memory of your past, of what had happened to you?" Eve with curiosity. Wait curiosity!? I thought Nasods didn't have an emotions.

"I... I don't have any memories of my past. I was found on the outskirts of Eden over four years ago. Though form a bandit raid, there was a few sparks from my past that came to me, letting me fight and help repel the attack. Anything before that is, gone."

"So you don't even know your own parents?" shaking my head no Rena while Rena was sneaking around to glomp me form behind. She lunged at me and I side stepped out of the way making her collide with a very surprised Raven. Knocking into him and kissing him on the way down. Both of them bounced right back up with their faces turning red and everyone started to laugh.

"Ooooohhhh I knew there was something between you and Rave!" Aisha squealed making Raven and Rena blush even harder.

"T-there is nothing going on between us!"

"Ya, right. I also bet that the two of you also enjoyed it too." Aisha pushed making Rena and Ravens face even redder.

"You guys suck you know that," they both said in unison storming to their rooms.

"Don't have too much fun up there you two." Aisha called up after them as the rest of them went up stairs to change into their regular cloths.

"This is going to be an interesting adventure with an interesting group," I thought to myself.

* * *

Two days had past since I meet the Elgang, two more days for me to get to know each other and what their pasts where like before they had meet each other. Rena sent by her elders to find the missing El, Elsword on the search of his missing sister and for the El, Raven trying to right all of his wrongs, Aisha looking to redeem her lost powers, Eve trying to revive the lost race of the Nasods, and Chung trying to become more powerful so he can protect the ones that he loves. One might think that it was just coincidence that they all had meet each other the way that they did, but I think that they where destined to work together.

"God I have been itching so see some more 's been too long." I said as I stretched my injured arm and leg to find there was little to no pain, that as a relief. Donning my regular cloths, I walked down into the dinning room to be met with the smell of Rena's legendary cooking. "Mornin' guys."

"Morning," answered Raven with out even looking from his newspaper.

"Something smells good." I said sniffing the air. "Whats cooking?"

"Scrambled eggs, beacon, and sausage," Rena said coming into the room with platters full of golden scrambled eggs, plump sausage, and nice delicious beacon.

"Where are the rest of the boys and Aisha?"

"I think I heard Aisha get up about now and the boys should be up about..." as she said that we all could hear a thunk of some one falling out of bed fallowed b some running, shoving, and some shouting before we started to hear the three tumble down the stairs.

"I smell beacon, I LOVE BEACON," Chung said enthusiastically.

"Ya ya could you get off of me though you're crushing me!" Elsword yelled under the pile. "I wouldn't have been in this mess if Aisha wasn't in my way!"

"Me? In your way!? You where running faster than Chung was to get that sausage."

"Ya, that's what you think witch..."

"Don't call me a witch!

"WHAT EVER WHENCH!"

"COME AT ME BRAH!"

"Jeeze are they always like this. I better intervene." I said but was held back by Raven and he shook his head. Giving a quizzical look he nodded his head towards Rena storming towards them emanating this dark aura that wasn't her usual style. Grabbing the back of Aishas and Elswords collar, she hissed a warning.

"You two aren't fighting each other right?" She gave them a demonic smile. I just watched and had an anime style sweat drop.

"No, we aren't fight at all Rena." Aisha said in a frantic voice.

"Ya! We were just playing. Ya that's it, we were playing around that's all."

"Oh, O.K then," Rena said returning to her nice self again.

"Do those two always do that?" I asked no one in particular.

"Ya, they've been like that almost all them time. They always bicker with each other just to have Rena break the argument." answered Chung coming to the table with a plate full of food. "After the first few, you get used to it."

After having breakfast, Elsword came back in saying to grab our gear 'cause we are heading out storming Wally's castle. I retrieved my new equipment from my room and took time to study my blade twirling it around a bit testing its balance finding it was much better than that sword I took off the bandit. Bringing up the blade I saw my eye on the polished steel, the fire imprint was starting to flicker and come more lively knowing I will be going into combat Twirling my sword a few more times I placed it back into its sheath on my back. I picked up my pistol, pulling the mag out to inspect the El that powers it along with the gauge that tells the power level. Snapping the mag back into the magazine well, let the slide go free chambering a round, twirling it cowboy style before putting into my holster. Banthus, if I find you, you will pay for what you have done to me so you should watch your back, 'cause I am coming to finish what I had started that day. On the walk to Wally's castle, I was filled that during the time I was unconscious, Rena and the rest had gathered info that Wally has been abusing his power to fulfill his own need. They even found out that Banthus was hired by Wally to steal the El, Banthus was also the one who attacked my village Eden days ago. (**XD COMPLETE GUN NUT HERE!)**

* * *

The walk was slow and was meet with little resistance from the occasional bandit, to some wild animal. Through the walk Elsword and Aisha started to fight with each other just to have it resolved by Rena going into her demonic mode quelled both of them and that was the most exciting part about that walk. Things got more interesting when we neared Wally's castle's front gate.

"I thought there is supposed to have some guards on watch?" Elsword asked.

"I don't like the looks of this, there are supposed to have at least one guard to watch the front gate. Something is up, and it doesn't look good." Raven commented.

"Heads up I sense some movement nearby. Arm up and be ready for anything." Eve commanded in a low voice.

I had already drawn my sword and pistol, Chung loaded his cannon, Rena had her bow ready to let a hail of arrows fly, Aisha had fireballs in her hands, Raven and Elsword has drawn there swords eyes darting around for any signs of movement, and Eve had her two drones, I think she calls them Moby and Reby, at the ready to send that hurling at any target. I see a glimmer on top of the gate. Realizing what it was from, I pulled up my sword just in time to have an arrow bounce off of it. "Scatter and charge the gate!" I yelled rushing forward. The gate opened to let out a garrison of troops to have it close behind them. Snapping the safety off on my pistol, I let five rounds go down range taking out five guards in front of me. Stopping to block a sword slash at me, I could see Chung rush past me wielding his giant destroyer, as if it were as light as a feather, and swung it flinging many guards in one direction. Entering his siege mode, he started to blast away at any target in range then bringing it up to block a downward slash at him. Finishing off two more targets that where in front of me, I saw Elsword jump over Chung to take out the attacker and rush forward with the others. Aisha hurling fire ball at anyone in sight eve beating an enemy with her drones along with slapping them silly, Raven trading bows with his fist and sword, Rena was on top of the guard house picking off targets that had reached our blind spot. Enemies swarmed her position and forced her to regroup with the rest of you group. We where making easy progress through when we were confronted by Banthus.

"You brats have a lot of nerve to come here." as threatened as he look at each on of our faces and sneered as he reached mine. "What's this? You recruited that little failure into your little kiddy band? Pathetic!"

"Go on guys and stop Wally form completing his plans."

"But Blaze we can't just leave you here to fight Banthus alone." Rena tried to reason.

"No, I must do this alone. This is personal."

"Alright good luck then," Elsword said leading the gang around Banthus.

"Hey were do you think your?" Banthus yelled as he tried to fallow only to have a bullet in the arm.

"No, your fight is with me."

"Well this will be interesting nun the least." I charged him with my sword dragging in the rear ready to strike. Our blades had met in the center of the room sending a small shock wave that had cracked the floor. We had traded blow for blow for what seemed like an hour and my swing felt slower, my reaction time lagged, and Banthus's strikes seemed like a blur unto one blow had connected sending me fling into a nearby wall. I was collapsed on the ground, completely out of energy and at the full mercy of Banthus. I only had managed to turn my self over to only be met by the victor of the battle.

"You haven't learned that you can't beat me kid? You haven't learned that your in over your head, that learned that you are a failure, a disgrace really to the point that you even failed to protect the ones that where close to you. That's why you could never win, why I am a victor and why you are to die right here and right now." sneered as he raised his sword. A memory of Mark asking to be my friend, a memory when we had first met each other. Another one of when we where defending the the wagons, and one of the night that he had died.

_"Come one Blaze move!" a voice yelled in my head._

_"Mark?"_

_" Come on! Move it or you're going to get killed!"_

_"What's the point, I failed to protect you and the village so what good am I now when I can't even defeat him."_

_"You lost because the self pity of yours made you. Now get up and haul your ass away from that sword now!"_ I rolled to the side just as the the ginormous blade come down on the position that I was in. I quickly jumped down into the a dark area were he won't find me for some time.

_"Now that we are alone, what are__ what are you thinking!?"_

_"I am thinking that after losing you, what is the point of my existence. What is the point of m living if I couldn't even protect Eden or you? What is worth me fighting when I know that I can never return to Eden and see everyone again?"  
_

_"The point of your fighting is to keep the dream of me and Eden alive. You are one of the few that had escaped the attack. You fight for the memory of me and everyone that had died at our village. If you die, the rest of use die along with you. You fight for us and our memories, that's why you fought every bandit that had threatened your new friends, and if you die now, you will be letting them down. So haul your ass up, stop mopping around, and beat the shit out of that guy that had killed me!"  
_

_"_Come out come out where ever you are!" Banthus taunted.

"I'm right over here," I jumped out of my hiding place.

"Oh so the failure decided to show his sad little face again."

"Oh this won't end like the last time!" I lunged at him with such speed that he had almost no time to block my attack. My attacks became faster and faster as Banthus frantically tried to block them to no avail as a sword slash appeared on his chest, legs, and arms. He threw a frantic swing just for me to knock his sword out of his hands. "You lost and I won." I said coldly pointing my pistol at his head. "This is for Mark and the rest of my village," pulling the trigger. Banthus's head snapped back form the initial impact then his lifeless body slumped over to the right and collapsed. replacing the mag in my pistol, I quickly raced to the direction my friends have taken to quickly see that they where fighting a giant robot. Chung was charging it but was flung back into the wall that I was standing right next to me.

"Glad you can join us Blaze," Chung said coughing up some blood. "We could really use you right now."

"What happened to the El and Wally?" I asked.

"He got away with another one of those big Nasod things he calls the Wally No.8 and I am guessing that this is what the citizens tax money went into."

"Hey are you two done gossiping there,'case we REALLY need your help!" Elsword yelled at us. Rushing into the fight I can see that Aisha is out of the fight. "Flaming Barrage!" I yelled letting the fire engulf me and my eyes blazed stark white. I could feel the energy pulse through my body. Everyone gaped at me as I did so and the No.8 responded by puffing some steam and got ready to met an attacker head on. "You aren't the cause of my villages destruction, you might not be the one that had killed my best friend, but you are NOT going to hurt my friends ANYMORE!" I charged fire trailing behind me with incredible speed that the drone hadn't yet registered that I was on the move but it was to late for that. I popped off 5 blazing shots that had made contact with the the 'eye' of the robot blinding it. Leaping into the air, I brought down my sword onto its head and slid down the front of it gashing a hole into the inner works of the robot. "CHUNG! Fire everything you got into that thing!" explosions sounded and the beast started to fall.I jumped out of the danger zone before it exploded. Everyone watched me as the flames receded from my body and my eyes returned to it's familiar red before collapsing. Getting helped up by Raven, we watched the fires of the now destroyed Nasod burn and then looked to the direction of where Wally had disappeared.

"What do we do now?" I asked no one particular.

"Seeing that we had barley beat that Wally bot. We will need to train, and advance in a job of our choosing." Eve pepped up.  
"By the way, what happened to you back there, there are no records in my data base that indicates that any human of ever having this power."

"I'm not sure how I am able to do this, but lets just go back home and turn in our quest and get some rest, we all had a rough time. Some more than others." Chung said looking at me and Aisha.

"Ya lets get back."

* * *

**Me: FINALLY THE NEXT CHAPTER IS DONE!**

**Everyone: Took you long enough.  
**

**Me: Come on give me a break.  
**

***Chibella and Eve still having a stare down*  
**

**Elsword: *Waves hand in between them*  
**

**Eve and Chibella: YOU WILL REGRET THAT ELBAKA  
**

**Elsword: WHY ME! WHY NOT RAVEN!? *runs away*  
**

**Raven: You're not dragging me into this  
**

**Eve and Chibella: GET BACK HERE!  
**

***Few minutes of chassing Elsword with chains*  
**

**Elsword: *Hanging down upside down chained and duct taped*  
**

**Eve and Chibella and Proto: VOTE NOW OR THE PIKABOY GETS IT! *Points guns at Chung*  
**

**Chung: WHY ME!?  
**

**Me: *Sweat drops*  
**

**Well I hope you like this chapter. R and R please  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**Me: *Typing furiously***

**Raven: *Reading a magazine*  
**

**Chung: *Chained to a chair* MMMMEEEERRRR!  
**

**Proto Chi: *holding Chung hostage*  
**

**Me:*Looks up from computer screen* O_O you weren't kidding me when you said that you will hold Chung hostage...  
**

**Chung: MMMMMMMMMMMMPPPHHHHHHHHHH!  
**

**Elsword: *swinging side upside down chained up* This isn't funny =.=  
**

**Me: It's kind of funny hehe  
**

**Me:... Wait, I thought Chi liked Chung..  
**

**Chi: Maybe... THAT'S NONE OF YOUR CONCERN! *Blushes*  
**

**Raven:*cough*bullshit*cough  
**

**Chi: Hey Raven, you remember what Miharu did to Banthus in her story? *Pulls out chainsaw*  
**

**Raven: OH GOD NOOOOO! FORGIVE ME! *Flings himself at her feet*  
**

**Chi: Good boy.  
**

**Aisha and Rena: I think we are the only ones here that are sane.  
**

**Me: With the current polls and just to get over making decisions I've decided to add both Chi and Proto to the story.  
**

**Chi and Proto: O.K we can let you go now Chung.  
**

**Chung: *Gets duck tape ripped off his mouth* Ow and HOORAY I'M FREE!  
**

**Elsword: I'M STILL HANGING HERE!  
**

**Me: Now that we have the people in the story... who to leave out... Aisha  
**

**Aisha: *Summons Angor*  
**

**Angor: What is it...*Grabs Angors wings* WHAT ARE YOU DOI-  
**

**Me: Aisha what are you doing with Ango- *Starts beating me with Angor* AAAHHHHHH!  
**

**Aisha: THAT'S FOR LEAVING ME OUT OF THE PAIRING!  
**

**Well here are the pairings:  
**

**RenaxRaven  
**

**ElswordxEve  
**

**ChungxChi  
**

**BlazexProto  
**

**Aisha is for ever alone... until a new character comes along ;D  
**

**This will also be one of maybe more chapters that have multiple POV's  
**

**Sorry for not updating, drowning in the Finals but I will try to make it up over the Winter vacation... if the place I am going to has any WI-FI anyways enough talk onto the story  
**

* * *

_**Blaze's**** POV:**_

It's been 5 days since our showdown with the Wally No.8, and 5 days of hard training for all of us. Finding that we needed to be stronger for us to fight the enemies in the near future. We all had chose our paths to what we will become, knowing that there may be unforeseen consequences in the future for that decision. Aisha had taken the dark rout by using the craft of dark magic causing her to become a Dark Mage. Elsword had discovered that he has a strong defense against physical attacks, but is weak when it comes to magic. Elsword had learned basic magic skills making him a Magic Knight. Raven is going to resist his urge the power of his arm and gone to improve his swordsman ship making him a Sword Taker. Rena had joined the group of elves known as the "Night Savers". Training with them had her develop skills that made her silent, deadly, feared, and even developed some skill in wielding a short sword named Erendil. Through this new equipment and skills has made her known as a Trapping Ranger. Chung had saw his shortcomings with his heavy Destroyer. To cover that weak spot, he had slimmed down his destroyer and created a silver shooter becoming known as a Shooting Guardian. Eve was reaching her limitations along with her two drones Moby and Reby. Knowing that she might not be able to keep up with everyone, she had activated an ancient nasod code that was never completed. Even though there were unknown risks, Eve is went into her Nasod chamber using the Code: Exotic, she is still sleeping in her chamber as we speak but will wake up any minute now.

I had chosen to focus on my ranged attacks than my swordsman ship. I had built a bolt action M24 sniper rifle and a fully automatic HK416 assault rifle for long to medium ranged attacks. I had also built an SMG to assist me in close range attacks. Though if they did get to close for comfort, I could always just wake them with the but stock of my sniper and assault rifle. Everyone looked different after our training, but not only have their appearance changed, so did their personality. Rena now seemed more serious than her old cheerful self, Elsword seemed more mature now and seemed less stupid than before, Chung looked more determined than when I had first saw him, Raven seemed less stressed like a huge weight was lifted off of his shoulders, and Aisha seemed to have a darker side to her now. I've also noticed that Rena and Raven have been hanging around each other more often and before Eve had went into her chamber, she and Elsword have also been hanging around each other and I even saw Elsword hang around Eve's chamber form time to time just looking at it waiting. Aisha and Chung seemed close at first but when she had chose the path of dark magic, it seems like there is a growing wall that is going up between them.'God it's been days since we have seen any combat at all. But still through all of their changes, they still are the same cheerful people that I had met on that days ago.

* * *

_'Where am I,' I thought. Looking around I had found myself in a familiar empty room. 'God I am in here again.' Soon the scenery changed around me to a a canyon filled with with with this reddish orange rock. I looked around and took in my surroundings when Eve, Raven, Elsword, Aisha, and Rena run past me. These lizardman started formed in front of the running group and they attacked them. Elsword and the others where fairing well in the attack but the lizards seem to never stop coming, as if there is an endless stream of them and they started to get pushed back. They fought but the numbers seemed to over whelm them when one of them landed a lucky shot on Chung knocking him to the ground. Before he could recuperation another blow fallowed sending him flying into an this open abyss. The scenery faded to Chung who lay motionless, chest rising slow, and those lizard things going in to finish him off when this cloaked girl with flowing orange hair jumped down in front of Chung and attacked the first lizardman by throwing what looks like... like a dark elf's knife? Where did she get one of those? Into the first lizardman, quickly fallowing up a quick slash from a scythe she must have had hidden under her cloak. She had dispatched those lizardman like they were standing still, the skill. That's when she turned to me with one of her eye's covered and the other one a sharp violet color. She looked straight at me as if she could see me when the dream ended.  
_

I woke up with a with a startle. Looking out of my window, seeing towns people bustling around with the sun starting its rounds of daylight. I got out of bed and went down stairs so deep in thought that I ran into Chung.

"Oh morning Blaze." Chung said happily.

"Morning Chung," I said while trying to get a smile out that I failed miserably at.

"Something wrong?"

"Nah it's nothing."

"You sure?"

"Yes I am sure." Sniffing the air, I caught a nice aroma emanating from the kitchen. "Mmmhhhh smells good what's cooking?" at that moment Rena came into the hallway.

"Eggs, pancakes, and bacon."

"Smells great... where did Chung go?" I look around already seeing that Chung filling a plate full of bacon and eggs. "Hey come on save some for the rest of us."  
Sitting down at the table with the rest of the gang, Eve was still missing. "Anyone of you saw Eve?" All of them shook their heads when a familiar voice rang out behind us.

"I smell something good down here. Did you guys eat it all!?" Eve said as she came down the stairs.

"Good morning to you Eve," Elsword responded. "It's good to have you back with us."

"How was your 5 day long slumber?" I asked.

"Refreshing. I can feel the power from the CODE: PROTO_00 course through my body too."

"Well I am itching for some action. Any leads to where the EL has headed off to?" I ask.

"Well judging by the direction that Wally had traveled, the closest village that is in that direction is the village of Bethma."

"When will be heading out?"

"Today," Elsword responded. "Pack you belongings and done your gear, we are leaving once everyone is packed. Going up into my room, I donned my jacket and combat boots, pulled on my combat gloves, strapped on my sniper and assault rifle holsters on my back strapping my pistol and SMG to my right and left legs. Sliding my bandolier loaded with multiple sniper rifle, pistol, assault rifle,and SMG magazines. Giving a quick tab to the but of the magazine on my assault rifle making sure it's secured in the magazine well. I checked the many different optics on my sniper rifle that ranged from thermal vision to night vision. Sliding my pistol and SMG into their respective holsters and locking them down, I walk out of the front door where the group waited for me.

"So, how long the trek going to be across the desert?" Chung asks.

"If we leave now, we will only need to stop for one morning the we should be in Bethma." Eve said.

"Then what are we doing talking about the traveling when we could be on the road, right, now." ELsword complained. At that we set of on our journey. It was long and tedious but we made good progress. After hours of walking, Rena declared that this will be our camp sight. She set down her items, unrolled her sleeping bag, plopped down on the ground in it, and fell asleep instantly.

"We should take shifts watching over the camp." Raven stated. "I will take the first shift. Elsword you're next, Chung you're after him, and Blaze you're up last. Happy dreams."

* * *

_I standing in the middle of a cave were the rocks where a reddish orange and I guessed that it was the same place form my dream last night. I was looking around the cave when a fire place appeared in the middle along with a girl with long orange hair, hair that covered her left eye, and sharp violet eyes. It was the same girl that I had saved Chung form last nights dream. She was huddled around the fire when she looked up in surprised to see me?  
_

_"How did you get here?" she asked.  
_

_"I'm not sure how I got here." I said scratching the back of my head.  
_

_"Wait, I remember you. I saw you in my dream last night. You where that boy that was watching me defend that blond boy from those Lizardmen."  
_

_"So you did see me last night."  
_

_"The hell I did, what where you doing in my dream anyway?"  
_

_"Your dream? I just fell asleep and there I was at that place." Looking around the cave a thought a cured to me. "Why are you living here all alone?"  
_

_"There is no reason to tell you."  
_

_"What's your name?"  
_

_"It's none of your concern."  
_

_"But if we ever meet some how, the name's Blaze."  
_

_"Blaze," she repeated. "Well nice meeting you Blaze."_

* * *

The conversation ended when Chung woke me for the night shift and I had a few hours to kill mulling over who that orange haired girl was and what does the past two dreams mean.

* * *

Early in the after noon we had reached Bethma and it was in worse conditions than what I had thought it would be in. Apparently the villagers under attacked by Bethma's natives the Lizardmen. Once we had gotten rooms for our stay, we headed out to clear the Dragon Road. The journey to the place was slow due to the rock spires that tower over us. They rocks are a reddish orange color, the same color that I saw in my dream! My mind raced rifling through thoughts of if that girl I saw was here, if what I saw in my dreams was going to happen, what if Chu-. I was brought back to reality by Elsword hitting the back of my head.

"Hey Blaze you there?"

"Ya I'm here. Why did you hit me?"

"'Cause we are at the beginning of Dragon Road. Ready up and expect anything." Elsword said walking off into the entrance of the the area. Pulling my HK416 out, I racked the charging handle loading a round into the chamber, and walked into the valley with the rest of the gang. We had encountered little resistance, a Lizardmen here and there where almost no enemies. This is to strange and I don't like this at all. After a few more minutes of walking, we come up onto a straight long walkway with a narrow bridge at the end connecting the other side of the a big canyon.

"I don't like the look of this guys." I said as I surveyed the area. "This is a perfect place for an ambush and I don't like it one bit." Looking behind me I noticed a a high flat rock that gives a commanding view of the gulf. "I will watch over you from that rock formation. I just have this bad feeling that something is going to happen. Once your over the bridge I will fallow suit after you and we will continue the quest." Nods were returned and I scaled the rock formation. Pulling our my M24 I pulled the bi-pod legs down got down into a prone position and signaled them to make their mad dash to the other side. They were at least 10 yards in when the first lizardman popped his head out from behind his cover, big mistake. My shot rang out and true to my aim and hit him square in the head killing him instantly. Racking the bolt I took aim at a Komodo that charged out to attack and only succeeded in getting in the right side of his head. The farther they went, the more the enemies seem to pour out of the sides of the two cliffs. Soon they were backed into a corner near the canyons edge. They had gotten into a defensive circle fighting the onslaught of enemies. Sending round after round down range when a Lizardman Saurus got a lucky hit on Chung when I was loading a new round into the gun when my memory of that dream returned to me, the dream where Chung... I quickly looked around frantically as the rest of the gang was busy fighting others when I spotted the one that will send Chung into the canyon.

Lining up the shot I pulled the trigger to only hear a "click". My eyes widened to the sound and the sight of Chung getting clubbed over the side. Rushing to my feet, I slid my sniper rifle into its holster securing it tightly, grabbed my 416 rifle, and ran towards the the big group of enemies. Shifting from left to right, I let my gun go free shooting any. My mag ran dry when a Komodo lunged at me only to meet the head on with my but stock of my gun. Slipping a fresh mag form my bandolier, I slipped the empty on in the open slot, rammed the mag home into the mag well, and let the bolt go free chambering a fresh round. Mowing down more enemies with the SMG, I had finally reached the Elsword and the others fighting for their lives against the lizards.

"How's things going on over here?" I ask.

"Ohh just fine *Grunt* we are having a bast fighting all of these nnff lizards." Elsword responded between blows. "Everyone huddle around me and stay close!" Everyone obeyed gathering tightly with Elsword in the middle. "I hope this works! STORM BLADE!" As he yelled that, multiple swords burst from the ground completely surrounding us and started to spin clearing any enemies that were in range of the blades. In the spinning blade storm, I could see some of the lizards running off down to where Chung was. Once that blades vanished, I switched my 416 to semi-auto and jumped over the side pursuing the few enemies that scampered off towards Chung. Sliding down the slanted cliff wall, I could see that same orange haired girl from my dream protecting the unconscious of Chung. Taking out holstering my assault rifle, I draw my SMG and pistol from their holsters and fired some rounds an attacking. Meeting the orange haired girl at Chung's body, we formed a defensive circle around him.

"Blaze right? How well do you fight?"

"Good enough to deal with these guys."

"We will see if you're good enough SOAL SPLICER!" Her scythe had grew twice in size and the lizards took a step back but continued their progress only to end up with a scythe to the face.

"Flaming Barrage!" The familiar feeling of power courses through my body as the flames enveloped me. The flames were intimidating but one glance at my eyes just made the Lizardmen freak as if I was some demon. Firing at any who tried to approach my injured friend will end up with a special delivery destined for their head.

* * *

_**Chung's**** POV:**_

'God my body feels like lead.' "Flaming Barrage!" 'Blaze?' I groan as I try to sit up.

"Chung you're awake!"

"The heck I am, what happened?"

"Questions later. You well enough to fight?"

"Not exactly."

"Well then," Blaze started ducking under a blade while unloading rounds into the attackers chest. "Sit tight until this battle is over."

I looked behind me to see this orange haired girl trading blows with the lizards with her scythe. 'She's kinda cute,' I thought. 'And the way that she fights, it's like she is just dancing, her movements so precise, the skill that she has.' My thoughts were interrupted by her voice yelling over the noise of combat.

"We are getting pushed back!"

"I have an idea, but when I say hit the deck, hit the deck fast!"

'What does blaze have in mind?' I thought.

"Chung, you think you are well enough to boost me into the air?"

"Ya I think I am."

I got ready into a brace position and I hope Blaze knows what he is doing.

* * *

_**Blaze's**** POV:**_

'I hope this works,' I think to my self. Knocking back a charging lizardman, I ran towards Chung. Switching my pistol for my assault rifle, I jumped into Chung's hands and he set me flying into the air. "Bullet Storm!" I yell. Spinning upside down in the air, I let loose my assault rifle and SMG pelting the enemies on the ground with a hail storm of bullets. Landing back on the ground, the remaining enemies that didn't get caught in my attack fled knowing that the battle was lost. Walked back over to where Chung and the orange haired girl was, the effects of the Flaming Barrage wore off, and both of them were staring at me.

"What?"

"When did you learn to do that?" Chung asks.

"I learned it during my training. I improvised it slightly to get a better area of effect, but it worked none the less." I answered. "Now that we have meet face to face, I would like to learn more about you." I directed the question to the girl. "What's your name?"

"My name is of no importance to you."

"At least tell my why you are living up here away from any form of friendly civilization."

"I live up here because it's to dangerous for anyone to be near me. Let alone for them to talk with me." She almost sounded hurt by the question.

"Sorry that I asked."

She then looked at Chung and said, "Next time you won't be so lucky," before bolting off into the shadows. Moments later the rest of the gang came sliding down down the side of the mountain. Rena came up to me question on rapid fire.

"Are you two alright? How did you defeat all of those lizards? How are you? How is Chung? Who was that girl I saw run away? Is she your girl friend?"

"Slow down with the questions. Me and Chung are alright, we had some help defeating all of these by that girl you saw running off, and no she's not my girl friend."

"We all saw her but there is something about her that reminds me of someone that I can't put my finger on." Elsword chimed in. "Ugh all this thinking is making my head hurt."

"Who ever she is, I have a feeling that we might see her more in the future." At that we got out of that canyon and turned in the mission.

* * *

**? ****POV:  
**  
I look on as the others met up with them. I keep looking at them thinking to myself 'Should I join them? Will they let me into their group after all this time of thinking I was dead?' Shaking off those thoughts I take one last look at the group and leave. 'But I have to say that blond haired boy, what was his name... Chung? Ya that's his name. I have to say Chung is pretty cute.' Mentally slapping at that thought I continue on away from them.

* * *

_**Blaze'****s**** POV:**_

Back at the house I was ready heading to my room when Chung pulled me to the side. "Something up Chung?"

"It's about that girl we saw today."

"What about her?"

"It's... well the way that you acted around her, it seems as if you two met before."

"That was the first time that I had met her in person. We know each other through this weird telepathic dream that I had the other night."

"Weird. I wonder if we will see her again."

"Most likely we will run back into her. Why do you ask?"

"It's because... well... she seems lonely. She also seems to be carrying a huge burden on her shoulders and kept it inside of her for who knows."

"If we meet her again with different circumstances, I think we might be able to get her to come out of her little shell once she gets to know us... Oh and i am guessing you like her by how much you are worrying about her."

"No no no! It's nothing like that." He tried to defend him self but his face just gave it away and a stupid smile started to form on mine.

"Ya right. Try telling you don't like her to that blushing face of your."

"Ahhh you're no fun. I'm off to bed now. Night Blaze." Chung said walking into his room.

"Night." I said back.

* * *

The next day we are tasked in clearing out the Bethma lake in the day and the ones that come out at night. As we head off towards the lake, I notice that Chung seems more distant than usual. He must be thinking of that girl we met and I would to if I was saved by her. Eve also seemed more out of it too, it's as if she is talking to some one in her mind almost. She and Elsword seemed a lot more closer along with Rena and Raven. We had reached the entrance to the lake and already we could see multiple enemies wandering about, some of them looked board out of their minds. When they saw us at the entrance all of them got into a defensive stance. Aisha summoned her staff, Raven drew his sword, Elsword conjured a fire ball into his hand, Chung loaded his cannon, Eve got her drones Moby and Reby ready, and I drew my M24. I brought up my rifle sending a round down range into an unlucky lizardman making him fall dead instantly. They where dazed at first to what happened and looked me giving me a glare. Smirking as I pulled the bolt back sending the empty shell up into the air. It spun in the air glinting in the sunlight when the others rushed ahead meeting the enemy head on. Placing the sniper rifle back into it's holster, I grabbed my 416 and ran after them. Chung had pummeled first few lizardman with his cannon and caught a sword swing. Elsword jumped over Chung taking out the attacked while the others ran past. Raven chopped down two enemies in front of him. A Komodo snucked up behind him and was about to attack when 3 green arrows slammed into its head. Our progress was quick and it was early in the afternoon when we finished clearing out. We decided to set up our camp near the lake and when that was done dusk had arrived.

* * *

_**Chung's POV:  
****  
**_I sat on a log by the fire cleaning my cannon and silver shooter while mulling over my thoughts. 'All through the day I can't stop thinking about her.' I thought to myself. 'Why am I thinking of her so much? Why does she stick out in my mind?' I look up then to see blaze come over to the fire and sat the opposite side of me.

"You've been thinking of her haven't you?"

"How do you-"

"Please Chung. Everyone knows that you've been thinking of her. It's practically written all over your face." Sighing in defeat, I admitted that I have been thinking of her.

"I'm not sure what I make of her yet. She seems nice but there are things that she is hiding."

"Take time to think about it and the solution might come to you."

Mulling over what Blaze had said just made it even more confusing. "I'm going to take a walk." I sad getting up form my log.

"Alright then but bee back soon." Blaze called after me.

"Got it.

'What does he mean that in time, the solution will come to me?' I thought. I walked for a good while going deep into the lakes forest I just kept on thinking 'what to do, what to d-' Hearing a branch snap. I pull out my silver shooter and arm my cannon to who ever comes. Slowly scanning my surroundings for the source of the sound I come upon multiple lizardman though they s. "Great lizardman. All I asked for a peaceful stroll around here but no, I have to deal with you guys." One of them that appears to be the leader of the party stepped forward and confronted me.

"You might have sssslipped through our grasssssp lasssst time. But you wont escape now with the help of your freindsssss." He hissed out before having the entire group disappeared.

"Great, invisible lizardman with spears. Lucky me." I said out loud when something hit me in the back. I stumbled forward shooting some rounds in the direction of the attack to find it empty. Looking around I spot some movement and I shot at it to be rewarded with a lizardman falling dead on the spot. I look for more and was rewarded by yet another lizardman. Knowing what to look for was the easy part of the battle but seeing it is a who different part to it all. I fought the invisible enemy with all my might but they just never seem to end. Things only get worse when the Saurus Warrior come along. Dodging a strike from the Saurus club to get hit in the back by a Armadillo fallowed up by a clubbing that sends me flying into a tree. Dazed from the impact, I look up to see the leader of the Shadow Lizardmen group that attacked De-cloaked in front of me with a sly grin on his face. "You lossssse filth human!" He yelled while razing his spear to deliver the final blow. 'This is it I guess Chung. End of the line for you.' Looking up hopelessly at the lizardman, I was disturbed to see a knife protruding from it chest. He grasped at it desperately to pull it out and only succeeded in having his lifeless body fall backwards on the ground. Another one came in to finish me when the girl with orange hair struck him down with her scythe.

"You going to lay there with a death wish? Or are you going to fight?"

* * *

**Me: FINALLY I GOT IT DONE!  
**

**Sorry for not updating in a loonnnggg time but Finals and homework got the better of me :/. I will try and make it up durring the vacation but no promises there. R&R and your feedback is always welcome.  
**


	4. Chapter 4

**Me: Another chapter done!  
**

**Chung: Good.  
**

**Elsword: How come Raven, Rena, Eve, Aisha, and I barely get any dialog?  
**

**Me:...  
**

**Elsword Rena Raven and Aisha: WELL!?  
**

**Me: I can't think of anything for them to say =.=  
**

**Rena: *Grabs me by the neck and goes into demonic scary form* You will give us some dialog right Anon?  
**

**Me: Yes Rena... ._.  
**

**Rena: *Goes back being her cheerful self* Ok then *Drops me on the ground*  
**

**Sorry for the long delay but from now on expect slow updates. Anyways, ONTO THE STORY!  
**

* * *

**? POV:**

I was deep in thought as I went on my nightly patrol around the Bethma Lake, one of the few places that I could call a home. _'Why can't I stop thinking about that blond haired boy? Do I have feelings for him?'_ I mentally slapped myself for thinking of such a foolish thing as I jumped down from my high vantage into the thick forested area near the edge of the lake. _'Though if I do like him, would he have the same feelings for me? ...Dang it, you are having those thoughts again. You need to focus or you will slip up in a situation and it might end up being fatal.'_ Shaking off the recent thoughts that I was having, I continue with my patrol through the forest. Jumping branch to branch, I surveyed the area for any unwelcome guests that might cause some...unfriendly interactions with me.

I reached the end of my patrolling zone when the sound of heavy combat caught my ear. Looking towards the direction that the noise was coming from, I thought to myself, 'Who, or what, could that be? I saw that group enter the lake earlier today, but what are they still doing here? No matter, it is close enough to compromise the safety of my shelter...and the safety of others if they do find it.' As I neared were the noise had originated from, the clash of weapons seemed to faded away. I slowed my pace a little thinking that what ever had happened was resolved and I didn't intervene when this feeling of doubt and anxiety hit me. I don't know where it came from or why I am feeling this sensation, what ever it i from had pushed me to get there A.S.A.P and I was glad I did so. When I had reached the area that the sound came from, I saw this familiar white gleam emanating from the bottom of a near by tree but he was unmoving and I feared the worse. My fears only added up when a lizardman appeared out of no where and hissed out, "You lossssseee filthy human!"

Acting with no hesitation, I drew my knife and threw it at the lizardman directly above Chung. He had grasped desperately at the protruding object in his chest and fell backwards dead. The others lizardman that had appeared took a few steps back staring at the knife when another tried his luck to kill Chung. At that I jumped down from the tree, pulled out my scythe and brought it down through the charging lizardman. With my back turned to him, "You gonna lay their with a death wish, or are you going to fight!" I questioned him as I lunged at the nearest lizardman.

* * *

_**Chung's POV:**_

I watch with surprise as the same girl defending him for a second time. Getting up with my thoughts racing, I quickly charged at the first lizardman I see and sent him flying into the darkness. Turning around quickly I came face to face with an attacking lizardman. In response to the attack, I brought my cannon up in an upward swipe knocking him back and loaded my cannon. Looking for more enemies, I spot the orange haired girl fending off three of the attackers with another on joining the fray. Pulling out my Silver Shooter, I engaged the four of them giving her enough time to dispatch them with a quick swipe. Breathing heavily I walk over to thank her. When I was walking over to her I had this feeling that something wrong was going to happen but I shrugged it off.

"Hey, thanks for saving me again." I said looking down while scratching the back of my head.

"Don't let your guard down again and you won't be in this situation where I have to save your sorry butt again." She said scornfully.

Looking up at her face, I can see that behind her emotionless eyes is some of concern and confusion. She must be confused with what she is feeling because of her solitary life here up in the Bethma mountain's.

"Why did you come and rescue me?" I ask.

"You don't need to know why I make the decisions I make." She said turning away from me.

"Well, what ever your reason is for saving me twice I owe you. You should also come back with me to the camp and join the others. You're good at fighting and by the looks of it, you seem really lonely."

* * *

_**? POV:**_

At that statement, my mind raced with thoughts. _'Was I lonely? I mean I lived here for years in complete solitude. Part of me says that I should join them and that I can trust him, while the other part of me says to refuse the offer and run, to not trust him. But there is also this feeling that I can't put my finger on or why I can't keep my mind off of Chung.'_ The thoughts tumble over each other as I considered his offer but it always somehow comes back to the question if he has the same feelings that I am having, if he like me.

After a minute of thought I was going to answer him when he went wide eyed. Time seemed to slow as I realized what is happening.

"Watch out!" He yelled as he jumped to the side drawing his Silver Shooter.

Instinctively I started to turn around to face the target when Chung's shot rang out. Turning the full 180°, I could see what was behind me was a lizardman with bullet hole in his head when I felt a force push me backwards fallowed by a burning sensation in my lower left side of the stomach. Looking down in horror to find a spear sticking where the sensation was coming from. I cursed myself for letting my emotions get in the way of my thinking and instincts. I hit the ground will a dull thud and all I heard before losing consciousness was Chung screaming, "NO!"

* * *

_**Chung's POV:**_

"No!" I yelled as I rush to the girls side. Knowing that I might not be able to stop the bleeding if I removed the spear, I didn't remove it but I did carefully break off most of the spears handle os it won't catch on any branches. Taking out the small First-Aid kit that I carried, I tightly wrapped around the wound and spear. "I must bring her to Rena, she knows what to do." Slinging my Destroyer across my back, I picked up the girl carefully and started to run back towards the camp. "Please hang in there, you are going to be O.K."

* * *

_**Rena's POV:**_

_'It's been over an hour since Chung had left for that walk, I hope he is O.K.'_ I thought to myself. 'If he doesn't come back soon, we will have to cancel the mission and go out searching for him.' Sighing as I got up, I checked Erendil to see if it was securely strapped to my side and along with my bow on my back. Walking over to the fire where everyone was waiting with a worried look on their faces.

"So Blaze, you are sure that Chung said that he will be back soon?"

"That's what he said."

"It's been an hour since he had left, you think we should cancel the mission and go out searching?" Aisha asked.

"Lets give him a few more minutes, maybe he ran into so-" Blaze stopped in mid sentence and stood straight up facing the tree line. "Chung! You're back. What took you so lo-" he had paused in mid sentence noticing the bloodied girl that he was holding.

"What happened!?" Everyone said.

"No time, she is in a critical state. Rena I need your medical expertise to stabilize her."

I was shocked at the sight of her and she seemed familiar but I couldn't put my finger on it. Shaking away the shock I had, I told Chung to bring her to my tent and set her down on the cot. Taking out the medical supplies I had, I concentrated on the wounded girl laying in front of me. Removing the gauze Chung had wrapped around the wound exposed the broken end of a spear shaft and an infected wound. Frowning a bit I looked up to see a worried Chung that looked even worse than when he came into the camp.

"How is she?" he asked.

"It looks like the infection is in it's beginning fazes. Though I can't complain because it could have been worse." I could see some relief fill his eyes and it almost seemed that his little Pikachu ears perked up a bit. Smiling at the thought, I shooed away Chung out of the tent and went to work removing the the spear and cleaning out the wound.

* * *

_**Chung's POV:**_

Walking out of the tent I came face to face with Elsword with a worried face.

"Something wrong Els?" I asked him.

"It's that girl, the one that you brought here."

"What about her?"

"My mind is either playing tricks on me or it really is 'her'."

"What do you mean by 'her'? Have you meet her before?"

"It goes back a long time before the El was stolen and I still a young night in training...hell I even forgot her name. It's been such a long time since I had ever thought of her. From what I can remember, she had sharp violet eyes, orange hair, and was found near Ruben. She was taken into the village and cared for. Eventually we had became friends. She had always went to see me train with my sister and she would always cheer me on." He smiled at the good old memories he had. "Then everything went down hill on that day." A darkness had crossed over his face as he went on.

"A fire had sprung out in the house that she was staying at for who knows why. Everyone in that house had gotten out except her and when the fire was put out, we couldn't find a single trace of her or even a body. A day had passed since the fire and there was no sign that she was alive so everyone had presumed that she was dead. Pleading for my Elises to go out and try to find the orange haired girl, she had reluctantly excepted. Though after a day of searching, we had turned up empty handed and my hope that she was alive fell. The absence of her cheering during my practice was discomforting and it seemed that my mind was more on her than what was happening in front of me. On one day though, Elises had gotten called on a mission in Bethma where the target had the same description of her. The thought of finding her had boosted my moral and I trained harder and just before Elises had left for the mission, she had told me to keep training hard like I was and I might even beat her...but that was the last time that I had saw her. A few days later a messenger came to me announcing that the team Elises was in has all gone missing. From then on, I didn't really think of that girl that much and focused all my efforts to become strong enough to find my sister."

"I'm sorry that I had asked that question, to have you remember that time of your life."

"No, no it's all right. Telling that story and for you to bring the orang haired girl I had meet all, those years ago, has raised my hopes."

At that Rena had exited her tent with a worried face.

"How did it go?" I asked.

"Everything went well. I get the rest of the spear out of her and cleaned her infection..."

"Is there something bothering you?" Elsword asked.

"Well,...it's just that the girl you brought here Chung is known to the elves as "Halfbreed Terrorist." She was born by a forbidden love between a dark elf and a human. I was told that they had done something to her to protect her, but it ended up having them get captured by demons. Both of her parents were executed but form then on, I have no other information about her."

"Do you know her name?"

"No, I only know her as the halfbreed terrorist. Other than that, I have no clue."

"Can go see her?" Elsword asked.

"You can go in and see her if you like." Rena responded.

As Elsword ducked under the tent flap, Rena came over to me and sat down next to me.

"I'm glad that you had brought her to me when you did. The spear didn't hit any vital organs or any major blood vessels luckily enough." She said trying to cheer my up. I tried to smile but only came up with a half hearted one.

"Are you still blaming yourself Chung?"

"What do you think? I was the reason that she is in this mess. I'm the reason that she got injured. If she didn't come save me, she wouldn't have ended up taking a spear in her side. I said that I will protect everyone that is in danger yet twice I was saved by that orange haired girl. I am a guardian of Hamel but I can't even protect myself. What kind of guardian am I if I can't even others must come to my own protection."

"Yes, you said that you would protect everyone but you know it's impossible. There are times where hundreds of people die and you are only able to save only a handful. But that doesn't make you a bad guardian, it just shows that you are determined to do everything in your power to protect everyone."

"But I failed on preventing that one girl from getting injured."

"But you did manage to save her life. Even though you couldn't prevent any harm to come to her, at least you had saved her life. It was just like the times that you were attacked and she had come to defend you. Don't try to take the burdens of everyone by yourself, you have friends you know." Rena said to me as she got up. Just then Elsword came out of the tent with confusion all over his face.

"What's wrong Elsword?" I asked and all got was silence. "Elsword?"

"I don't want to talk about it now. I need some time to think. I also need some answers fro her when she wakes back up."

"Well no time for that. Our night patrol around the lake starts now." Raven came up to us. "So get ready to move out."

Elsword went ahead and to join the others and Rena was starting to move to them but stopped and looked at me.

"You coming Chung?"

"..."

"You don't have to come if you don't want to."

"I just need some time to think about what you had said today. Please go ahead with the others and tell them to not wait for me."

Rena walked off and joined the others who all gave me a worried look.

* * *

_**Eve's POV:**_

_'Something is up with Chung, he's not acting like he usually does.'_ I thought to myself. _'Does it have to do something with these 'emotions' for that orange haired girl?'_ We kept on walking through the forest, I had also noted that Elsword was also acting strangely too ever since that girl had come to the camp. Catching up with Elsword, I could see that he was deep in thought.

"Something up Els?"

"Huh!? Oh it's you Eve..."

"There is something on your mind isn't it."

"Ya, there is something on my mind."

"Does it have to do with that new girl?"

"How did you..."

"Please, in the morning you seemed fine as always but when she came, you seemed more distant that usual."

"You got me there, I've been thinking of her because I am almost positive it's the same girl that had gone missing after this fire at my village. I also think that she might know something about the disappearance of my sister. Why do you ask?"

"Oh I was just curios," I quickly said looking away but Elsword's' eyes just seem to pry me open.

"So you weren't worried about me right?" He sneered at me.

"No, I'm not worried about you. Don't get any ideas that I have any feelings for you! I'm a Nasod after all, Nasods don't have feelings!" I said in my sternest voice but he only got closer to my face with this grin making me take a step back.

"Ya, right try telling that to your pink red face." Elsword pointed at me. I brought my hand up to my cheeks to feel that they were warm. _'What are these feeling I am feeling? Are these, what humans call, emotions? Don't be stupid Eve, you're a Nasod. Nasod's aren't supposed to have emotions. But then again, I am having these sensations that I have never had before. Maybe you're wrong about not having any emotions,"_ I thought. We had cleared out most of the area around the lake when we were confronted by their boss, the Shadow Lizardman.

"Pffftt this will be easy" Elsword gripped his sword and charged the boss.

"Elsword wait!" I tried to call after him but it was too late. He was flung back into the rock side when we all charged in after Elsword. Raven had ran to it's rear while Aisha conjured up a spell and sent it hurling at the Shadow Lizardman who only sneered and jumped out of the way to have an unsuspecting Raven get hit with it instead. He then charged after me and I turned Moby and Reby into spears and hurled one of them at him. He dodged my attack easily and I had to jump out the way to avoid a sword swipe when the voice that I have been hearing ever since the Code Exotic.

_'Why he just took out Elsword and Raven is down. Do I need to take over?'_

'That wont be necessary Code.' Jumping back to gain more distance between him and me. Looking past him I could see Rena jump down behind him with Erendil drawn coming in for a slash but was caught of guard when he just vanished in front of her. Appearing behind her, I didn't have any time to warn her and she was knocked out from a blow to the head.

_'Great Rena is down now. Are you going to let him do that to your friends? Do I have to take over and finish this?'_

_'Code stop talking it's distracting me!'_

_'Stop calling me Code, I have a name you know!'_

_'All right, then Proto, shut it so I can concentrate!'_

_'Now there is your back bone! Go on, defeat this guy and prove me wrong.'_

Aisha was frantically defending herself from the multiple sword cuts and swipes that were directed at her and Blaze was trying to pull the Shadow Lizardman's attention by shooting him with his assault rifle then pulled a hard downward cut on top of his head but only succeeded in annoying him slightly and getting knocked back into one of the cliff walls.

"Mega Electron Ball!" I yell sending a huge electron ball at the Lizardman distracting him long enough for Aisha to get to my side.

"This guy is harder than I thought. Elsword is down from the initial strike, Rena and Blaze were struck down by him, Raven is down from friendly fire, and we are down one man. This is going to be harder than I thought." Giving my a worried glance, I knew that she was worried that we won't make it out of this alive.

_'I know what you are thinking and if you want to survive, let me take over!'_

_'No! I can do this, just give me a chance!'_

_'All right, one more chance but if Aisha is knocked out like the others there is no stopping me.'_

_'Thanks Proto.'_ Looking at Aisha I got a nod from her and she pointed her finger at the lizardman.

"Circle around him and I will distract him for you" Nodding in return I started to fly behind him and he turned to attack me.

"Hey, over here ugly! Plasma Cutter!" A laser fired form her finger bringing his attention causing damage to him but he charged her once her attack was finished and fatigue had taken over her body. I watched helplessly as the lizardman rammed into Aisha sending her flying.

_'That's it! I'm taking over!'_

"WARNING! WARNING! CODE: Q-PROTO_00 IS TAKING OVER!" My systems blared in my head. It felt like I was inside of a puppet as the code took over. I could still see everything that was happening around me but I couldn't move. I watched on as Proto summoned spear after spear, hurling them at the lizardman that who was frantically trying to dodge them while gain some ground to attack 'me.' With all of my will I try to fight Proto's control over my body.

_'What are you doing!?'_

_'trying to take back my body!'_

* * *

_**Blaze's POV:**_

_'What happened?' I though to myself taking in my surroundings. 'Great I am in the same dark room as in my other dreams.' Pondering what had happened I soon noticed another person with me. Turning to see who the other person, I noticed that it was back and pink version of Eve._

_"Eve?" I asked her._

_"I'm not Eve but a the code that she used to become Code Exotic."_

_"Why are you here?"_

_"No time to explain, but you need to wake up now. I am losing control over Eve's body and I don't think she or the others will last if you don't wake up right now." She had ordered me then disappeared._

_"Wait! How am I supposed to wake up?" I asked when she had disappeared._

_"This might help you."_

* * *

Waking up to find that Raven, Elsword, Aisha, and Rena still nocked out cold, I could see the Shadow Lizardman slowly progress an Eve that looks like is fighting a mental battle. Pulling out my sniper rifle I take aim at the target. "Charge Shot!" Energy started to concentrate at the muzzle of my gun as the El shard, that is in my magazine, power is drained into one concentrated shot. Pulling the trigger, the mass of energy is sent down towards the weakened Shadow Lizardman killing him on the spot just as Eve collapsed to one knee. Rushing over to her I can see that her mind was els ware. Leaving her to what ever she was doing, I checked up on Rena and the others who were slowly coming to.

"What happened?" Elsword asked rubbing his head.

"We were knocked out by that monster right there," Raven jerked his thumb to the dead lizardman, "and it appears that Blaze and Eve defeated the monster saving our lives."

"Wait, where's Eve?" Elsword got up and started to look around.

"The last time I saw her she was right over there." I looked on. "Agh she can't have gotten to far. You guys go back to the camp, I will meet up with you there once I find Eve." Elsword tried to protest against it but his wounds had got the better of him and reluctantly went with the others back to camp. 'Now where could that girl have gone to.' Walking in the direction that I think Eve had traveled, I started to hear Eve's voice. Hiding behind some rocks I listened in on the conversation with another girl that looked surprisingly like Eve but her face was obscured by the darkness.

"Why did you do that!?" Eve screamed.  
"Because if I didn't, you and the others would have been dead."

"That doesn't mean that you can take over like that all the time!"

"Yes, I know that it can't and for you to be able to override my command over your body is impressive. It shows me that you are capable for me to give you complete control of my power."

"What do you mean by you will give me control of your power?"

"Everyone that used my code would gain some power for a time, but then start to lose control of the code. You on the other hand have the power to control the code unlike the others...someone is coming, I must go now." Walking out from behind the rocks, the person that Eve was talking to had vanished.

"Who was talking to you right then Eve?"

"It's nothing important at the time Blaze."

"All right then. We better get back to the others though." Turning around, we both headed for the camp. 'I wonder what Chung is up to.'

* * *

_**Chung's POV:**_

I sat around thinking about everything that Rena had said to me. I was so deep in thought that I nearly missed the noise that was coming out of Rena's tent. Getting up to investigate the noise, I found that the girl was awake and was trying to get up.

"Please don't try to move, your wounds are still healing."

"How did I get here? All I remember was that a spear had struck me and then I blacked out."

"You're at my groups camp. I had carried you hear after the battle and had your wounds treated."

"Thanks...I guess."

"Can you please tell me your name now?" She had hesitated for a moment but then calmed down as she started to open up.

"Since you saved my life, my name is...is Chibella."

"Chibella." I repeated. "That's a nice name. But there is something other things that I would like to know, how does Elsword know you?" This had put her in a more distant look on her face as if i had tapped into an old memory that she didn't want to remember.  
"I'm sorry, you don't have to answer if you don't want to."

"No, no it's all right. If you want to know, I will tell you." She went on to tell me that she had been found by Elsword's villages chief and was cared for there. She said that they were friends for some time when she had started this fire to run away to Bethma to live in complete Solitary.

"Why did you run? You were cared for in the village and you had made a friend. Why did you run?"

"Like I said before, there are somethings about me that you don't want to know and it will put you in danger."

"I would also like to know why you came to protect me?"

"I... I don't know why? I don't know why at all. I just did... I guess."

"Ya, but what's the point of protecting me when I can't even protect my own home or myself."

"Your home?" Grimacing at the thoughts of the state Hamel is in, the people that had died by the demons that invaded, and my own father.

"Demons had invaded my home, Hamel, and we all had tried to defend it desperately and had done a good job with it too with the help of my father. Everything was going well until they had slowly corrupted his El stone. Corruption had taken it's toll on him and changed his el into a dark El stone. I had confronted him to try to stop him but was gravely injured. If it wasn't for Elsword and the others, I wouldn't be alive now. I swore that no one else would get hurt from then on but then here you are, injured form defending me when I couldn't."

"Don't bash yourself over your head about the past. Learn to try to move on and learn from your mistakes. Also don't try to take everything on by yourself when you have friends that will support you and will help you."

"Thanks, I needed that."

"Think of it as nothing." She yawned and started to fall back to sleep so I got up and left the tent. _'She seems like a nice person once you get to know her...and she is also kind of cute._' Smiling to myself, I returned to the same spot around the camp fire, placed a new log onto the dying fire, and thought back on what Rena and Chibella had said.

* * *

_**Chibella's POV:**_

I lay back down on the cot pandering what I should do now. '_Should I go join them or should I run away and live my life as it should be, in complete solitary confinement? But them there's Elsword. It's been years since I last saw him. Would he except me back into his life after so many years with everyone thinking I am dead? No Chi, what are you thinking. No, no one wants a half human, half dark elf as a friend.'_ Getting up from the cot, I retrieved my knife and scythe, Zentai, and snuck out of the tent. Looking towards Chung, I make sure that he hasn't spotted me and was about to leave when I thought that I should stick around. _'I have been alone for years now and the group that Elsword has brought together seems like a nice one.'_ Shacking my head dismissing the thought I backed into the shadows and made it slowly back to my camp. Grabbing my side as I enter the entrance to my shelter, I walked over to my bed collapsing onto it thinking that these injuries will keep me under until for a while. _'Once these wounds have healed enough, I am coming for you Kayak.'_ I slowly dozed off after those thoughts and dreamed of Chung.

* * *

_**Blaze's POV:**_

I walk with the group thinking who that person was that was talking with Eve. When we got back to the camp, Chung seemed less depressed than the last time I saw him and Elsword went up to Chung asking if the girl had woken up. I couldn't hear what Chung told Elsword, but what ever it was had put him into a state of shock and confusion. As he walked over to his tent, I could Eve fallowed him into the tent worried about him.

"What did you tell him Chung?" I asked.

"All I said was that she had woken up for a time and that her name is Chibella. It must be the same girl that he had told me about before."

"What girl?" At that, Chung had told me all about how Elsword had met Chi when he was still a young warrior in training, how everyone thought that she was dead from a fire in the village, and how his sister, Elises, went out to find her but then went missing.

"So that's why he looked the way he did. By the way, how is Chi recovery?"

Before Chung could answer my question, Rena cam up to us and said, "The girl is missing."

"She is? I thought her wounds had limited her mobility?" Rena shook her head as I said that.

"Since she is half dark elf, she can recover faster than a normal human could. In the amount of time since we had treated her has given her enough time to make it out of here." Chung dropped his shoulders hearing that.

"Cheer up buddy. At least you know that she is still alive out there." Patting his back he smiled a bit at that. Rena had all ready headed off for her tent along with Raven, and Aisha. "It's been a busy day today and I'm beat. You should hit the sack too. You've had a rough day mentally and physically." Nodding we both went to our tents and were fast asleep in a matter of minutes.

Early the next morning, we had packed up the camp and headed back to the Bethma to turn in our mission. Eve seemed more distant than ever and Elsword was deep in thought with finding out that Chibella was really alive. Chung seemed more cheered up than he was the past day. Rena and Raven seemed closer now. I sometimes catch them holding hands as they walk and the occasional glance that makes Raven blush. I swear, those two were meant for each other. Once we had gotten back to Bethma and turned in our missions, we got word that there won't be any missions for us and that we have the day off. We had changed out of our clothes back at the house we were lent and had breakfast there. During breakfast, we all chatted with each other when I had noticed Eve was in this trance looking off into the distance. Everyone had cleared off their plates and went out to practice between each other, enhance and repair their weapons except for me. I decided to stay behind because I had nothing else to do.

_'I wonder what's with Eve. She's been more distant than before and I wonder if it has to do with that person she was talking to last night.'_ I leaned back in my chair looking at Eve wondering when she will break out of her trance. After a solid minute, she blinked and looked around at the empty room.

"Where did everyone go?"

"They went out to train and to improve their weapons."

"Why didn't you go Blaze?"

"Didn't feel like training and my weapons are in tip top shape. Though I have been wondering something, who was that you were talking to last night and why do you go into this trance like state?" Looking at her now, I could see that she had gone back into her trance but but only for a short moment when a black and pink version of Eve popped right in front of me. Falling backwards in my chair I could hear her chuckle at me.

"So you wonder what causes Eve to be in a trance and who was that person Eve was talking to last night? Well, that would be me." She said.

Getting up form the ground even more confused than before. "How can there be two of you?"

"Isn't it obvious? I'm the code that Eve here used to become Code: Exotic, I am the Q-PROTO_00 code, but you can call me Proto." She disappeared then reappeared extremely close to my causing my face to turn a shade of red. Looking me over, she then smiled and turned back to Eve. "God he's cute. Is he your boy friend?" That made Eve's face flushed and mine became even more red.

"He's not my boy friend Proto." She just kept on staring at me floating around me, leaning on my right arm and staring into my eyes.

"I can see a little flame dancing in your eyes, how peculiar." My face was now a bright red and she chuckled at that. "Well, that's enough time out. Later Blaze~!"

She disappeared and my face is now a bright cherry red and I just stood there speechless.

* * *

_**Eve's POV:**_

I look on in amusement as Blaze tries to sort out what had just happened.

_'I think you over did it Proto.'_

_'Nah, he's cute like that' She giggled in my head looking out at him. 'There is something strange about him. '_

_'What do you mean Proto?'_

_'I just can't put my finger on it, but there's just something about him that's different. Anyway it's been a long night for me and I'm going to sleep.'_

_'Later then Proto.'_ Coming out of the brief conversation, Blaze was still a little staring at me with a cherry red face.

"So...that's the code you used?"

"Yep pretty much."

"Well that was very...interesting introduction."

"It was and I think she has a something for you."

"What!? No way. Why would a code go for me?"

"How does a code have feelings in the first place?"

"You do have a point there." He scratched the back of his head still thinking of what just happened when the others came back.

"We're back!" Elsword yelled slamming the front door open and walked in the house. "Did you and Blaze do anything? 'Cause his face is a bright red... WHAT DID YOU DO WITH HER!?"

"Elsword calm down! I didn't do anything!" Blaze tried to cool down Elsword but to no avail.

"LIER! TRY TELLING THAT TO YOUR FACE!" He charged Blaze with his sword in full swing and Blaze ran. Elsword ran after him eyes blazing.

_'What's with all the ruckus out there?'_ Proto popped into my mind rubbing her eyes.

'Elsword thinks that Blaze did something with me when the others where away. He's only going after the fact that Blaze's face is a bright cherry red when you came out.'

_'Should I go and stop all of this?'_

_'Now where would the fun in that be?'_

_'How 'bout we both go and get them?'_

_'My thoughts exactly... you didn't just read my thoughts and think of that?'_

_'Maybe.'_ Mentally rolling my eyes Proto popped out in front of with a fierce scowl on her face making him stop cold.

"Eve why are you so mad... and whats with the new outfit?" Everybody else looked back at me then Proto with total confusion on their faces. Moving up from behind Elsword, I wrapped my arms around his shoulders kissing him on the cheek slightly making his cheeks go a slight red. 'Now if I didn't have any emotions, I wouldn't have done that,' I thought to myself. 'You do really have feelings after all.'

"Silly Elsword, I'm right here." Blaze had slowed down now and walked next to Proto who had put her hands on her hips and looked at Elsword with disapproval.

"Eve, how can there be two of you?" Aisha asked curiously.

"I'm not Eve, I'm the Code: Q-PROTO_00 that Eve here used to become Code: Exotic. You can call me Proto. Oh, and to clarify to you Elsword why Blaze's face is so red is because of me." She pecked at his neck making Blaze jump back a little and turning his face red again.

"Aw that's so cute~!" Rena said standing next to Raven with his arm over her shoulder.

"Oh come on guys, she's not my girlfriend! I mean hell, we just met today!"

"Looks like we have lover boy over here!" Elsword yelled pointing at Blaze. In an instant Elsword was on the ground knocked out cold from Blazes downward punch to the head. I walked up to Blaze and slapped the left side of his face sending him to the floor.  
Proto was already at his side helping him up, and I was looking on holding my hand thinking. 'Ow, when I slapped Elsword, it didn't hurt. But when I slapped Blaze, I had hit some harder material. It almost felt like metal... what are you thinking Eve, of course it's not metal and most likely some hard bone. Then again, Proto did say there was something strange about him.'

"Ow Eve, you knew that he deserved that. Though I guess I also deserved that slap for hitting him that hard. I'm heading off for my bed, I'm still a little tiered from last night."

Looking at Blaze as he walked up stairs Proto started to talk to me in my head as Raven and Rena picked up Elsword and brought him to his room.

'_I'm worried about him.' _Proto said as she looked towards the stairs.

_'Who, Elsword? He'll be fine. A days rest will make him better.'_

_'No, it's not Elsword, but Blaze.' _I looked at her curiously when she said that.

_'Why are you worried about Blaze? He seems fine.'_

_'I know what you were thinking after you slapped him.'_

_'That still doesn't give you reason to worry about him.'_

_'Then there's the scans you did on him when you and the others found him.'_

_'Ya, and what about those scans?'_

_'From what I can see, you had to pull two of them because the first one said that he was part Nasod and the other one said that he was human. How do get those types of scans?'_

_'It was just a glitch in my systems, nothing more.'_

_'Keep telling yourself that but I just don't know.'_ She left then making me wonder if what she was thinking was true or not. Shaking the thought off, I went up to Elsword's' room and did a quick scan to see if he had a concussion from the blow to find none. Sitting on the edge of his bed I look on at him.

_'He's quite cute when he's not being a complete idiot._' I think to myself.

* * *

_**Blaze's POV:**_

_'God, this place again?' Getting to my feet I look around to find the same empty black room when I started to hear a familiar voice. "I see you had made some new friends and potential allies."_

_"Ya, and what about them?"_

_"Nothing much, but it interests by who they are. An Elf, a Nasod, a Knight, a Guardian of Hamel, a Half-Nasod, a Magician, the Half-Breed Terrorist, and the most interesting one, a Nasod Code."_

_"What do you mean by Proto being the most interesting friend?"  
_

_"She's a code. She's not supposed to to have any emotions let alone to have thoughts on it's own. Also for it to be this curios to listen in on this conversation." Proto then appeared right beside me with a confused face and I looked at her surprised to see her there.  
_

_"How did you know I was listening in?" With a chuckle the voice addressed her.  
_

_"I can do lots of things that you can't imagine."  
_

_"Proto, why are you here?" Before she could answer the question, the voice answered for her._

_"She's here to get information about you. To learn things about your past." I looking at her she looked at me with a guilty face but then turned away with a more stern one.  
_

_"What makes Blaze special enough for you to watch over him?"  
_

_"There are many things that make Blaze special. Many of them are about his past that he desperately wants to learn about. Some of those things you will find out in the future." His voice trailed off at the end answering her question but still left mine unanswered._

* * *

Bolting up from my dream, I could see Proto sitting at the end of my bed with a concerned look.

"Why were you in my dream?"

"Like he said, I was there to learn more about you and your past. But from the way you were talking to him makes me think that it wasn't the first time that you had spoken to him."

"I had met him before in another dream when he had told me that I had no idea how special I really was, but that wasn't the thing that had confused me the most. He then said, '_T__ime will only tell what your true colors are.'_ That unsettles me because I have no clue of what my past was like before. In time I will know who I really am and what scares me is if I will turn into something that will endanger my friends." Proto placed her hand on my should calming me down.

"What you might become is all decided in the future. Don't try to think of what you will be in the future and act like yourself now." She had now gotten up from my bed and stood in front of me face to face. Smiling at her, a thought came across my mind.

"Why do you care so much about me?" She then kissed me on the forehead and smiled at me before vanishing.

_'No doubt she had gone back to Eve's mind to talk about what just had happened.' _I thought. Smiling at that I got up from my bed and went down stairs to spend the rest of the day with my friends.

* * *

**Anon: FINALLY IT'S DONE!**

**Raven: Finally you got it finished. What took you so long?  
**

**Anon: What? I like skiing, you got a problem with that?  
**

**Raven: I don't understand how you like playing in freezing temperatures.  
**

**Anon: What ever.  
**

**Elsword: Oh come on man! You had me get knocked out twice. TWICE!  
**

**Anon: Meh...  
**

**Elsword: I mean, the second one I only stated the truth! Proto and Blaze are lo-  
**

**Proto: *Supper slaps Elsword sending himself flying across the room*  
**

**Elsword: *Knocked out* _  
**

**Blaze: Ooohhh That's got to hurt.  
**

**Eve: PROTO! Why did you do that!  
**

**Proto: He had it coming and you know that Eve.  
**

**Eve: Ya, I guess so.  
**

**Chibella: HOORAY I GOT INTRODUCED MORE IN THE STORY! :D  
**

**Anyway, it's kind of late but MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! I was going to get this done and published on Christmas day but skiing got the better of me... the ski resort got a fresh drop of power. I LOVE POWDER! Anyway, R&R if you want to ;D  
**


	5. Chapter 5

_**Chibella's POV:**_

The morning sun poured into the shelter, that I called home, waking me another day. Getting up from my bed, I checked my wound to see that it was close to recovering. _'Good, at this rate I will be able to finally get rid of Kayak. He's been a thorn in my side for a long time.'_ Walking to the wall where I had placed my Dark Elf Knife and Zentai Scythe, I picked up my knifes sheath and pulled the knife out inspecting the blade for any faults. Finding none, I slid the blade back into it's sheath and set it down. Looking up at my scythe started to bring back some memories that I had buried many years ago. Memories of my parents, the execution, and the Chambers. I shivered as the memories came back to me.

"It's been years since you last had those memories." I said out loud. "Though through the pain and suffering from being captured has also had its advantages. If we didn't get captured, I'm not sure the Zentai artifact in me would have awoken."

Smiling at that I picked up the scythe and twirled it around watching the sun glint off its blade to fallow up with a downward slash. Side stepping I swing my scythe at the imaginary enemy. Continuing my training for some time, I only stopped when my stomach started to growl at me. Sighing, I leaned my scythe against a wall and retrieved some smoked Komodo meat from my stash making a note to replenish my wavering supplies. Sitting on the ground chewing the tough Komodo meat, I keep telling myself that leaving Chung and the others was the best thing I could do. But, there was something at the back of my brain that keeps telling me, "Did you make the right choice?" Flexing around trying to find any pain from my wound to find none, I donned my black cloak, strapped my knife sheath to my side, grabbed my scythe, and headed for Kayak's base, the Dragons Nest_**.**_

* * *

_**Chung's POV:**_

"So, we're heading off to Dragon Nest today?" I ask.

"We are and we are going to confront the Lizardman boss Kayak. Buch had told us that if we eliminate Kayak, we might stop the Lizardman troubles all around. We're leaving in about 5 minutes so get your gear and meet up outside." Raven said and left.

Walking to our rooms I pulled Blaze aside and he already knew what my question was.

"I know what you are going to ask me. Yes, there is a slight chance that Chibella will be at Dragon Nest, but there is a bigger chance that she won't." Nodding I left him and entered my room. My Silver Shooter hung above my Destroyer in the corner of the room and my armor stood before me opened waiting for it's host to enter it. Stepping into the armor's empty cavity, pieces of the armor started to move around engulfing my body in the ivory colored metal. As the final piece fell into place, the armor tightened removing any seems that the pieces left behind and let the El energy course through it powering my armor. Grabbing my Destroyer and Silver Shooter, I headed out the door and waited for the others.

We walked for some time going towards Dragon Nest with little chatter knowing that Kayak will be a tough enemy to bring down. I couldn't get rid of this restless feeling that I was having. I don't know where it came from or why I am having it, but I do know that there is something up with this mission. My suspicions where confirmed when we had reached the entrance. The entrance was filled to with battle damage and the corpses of Flame Bats, Flame Komodo's, and other enemies littered the area.

"What the heck happened here!?" Aisha said looking around the area. Eve floated around trying to figure out what happened when I walked up to one of the corpses. Studying the wounds I thought to myself, _'I think I saw these types of wounds before... But from where?'_ Thinking hard a sudden thought hit me. "It can't be." I said under my breath.

"What can't be?" Rena asked.

"I think I know who did this."

"Well don't keep us waiting spill the beans!" Aisha yelled.

"I am almost certain that the person is... is Chibella." Everyone went silent for a moment when Rena broke the silence.

"Well if she is in there, she will need our help if she is taking Kayak alone. She's still wounded you know and I know you still owe her one." She smiled at me and the others nodded.

"Well, what are we standing around here for!? Lets go!" Loading my cannon I ran inside and the other fallow suit. _'Please be O.K Chi.'_

* * *

**_Chibella's POV:_**

I had fought my way through all of Kayaks minions with ease, but the heat of the place was starting to take it's toll on me. Finishing off a Berserk Lizardman, there was nothing else standing between me and Kayak.

"So you are the one that has been living in my territory, attacking my troops, and have been disrupting my plans. You are a very persistent one you know."

"So you're Kayak. I was expecting some one more evil looking. Oh well this will be fun."

"Don't underestimate me girl! Magic Missile!" A missile appeared out of now where and started to fallow me. Jumping backwards, I lead it towards a wall then sprinted forward. Before it could make the turn, to keep fallowing me, it slammed into the wall detonating shacking the ground bellow.

"Nice try. My turn, Solar Alpha!" Spinning my scythe in the air, I slashed downward unleashing a shock wave of solar energy at Kayak who was now frowning. Hitting him full on had weakened him but he kept on coming.

"This can't be! Only few can have the power of the sun! The only exception to that is if you had the Zentai artifact! But it's been missing for years!"

"What would you say if I had the Zentai artifact sealed away in me when I was born?" In response he growled at me and lunged for an attack which I clocked easily. Charging at him now, I had Zentai in full swing. When I got close to him he smiled at me and yelled, "Bonfire!"

Rising his hand into the air the ground below me started to glow red. I had barley enough time to say, "Mirage!" when the two flame towers bursted up from under me. As the flames hit me, I teleported away from harm and found myself hidden behind a large rock 100 feet away from Kayak. I tried to stand up when a sharp pain shot from my side. Steading myself on the rock, I dab my hand towards my would do have it come up red with blood._ 'You've pushed your wound to far Chi, you pushed it to far...'_ I thought to myself. Looking around I could see that the entrance to this area was right behind me. _'I can run and return again once I am healed up, or I can take him on now without straining my wound too much.'_

"So, you're running away from me?" Kayak taunted. Peaking around the corner I can see him looking left and right with his all present sneer on his face. _'I have to make a move fast before my invisibility ends.'_ I thought to myself. Making a split decision, I dart out of my cover when he had turned his back on me and charged him. Grabbing Zentai with both hands, I get ready for any kind of attack he has planed. I was ten feet away from him when I jumped in the air ready to deliver a downward slice onto him. I reached the maximum hight that I would gain from the jump when my the effects of Mirage wore off revealing myself. I swung my scythe up over my head when Kayak turned suddenly with the a laugh hitting me in the side sending me flying into the rock I was hiding behind moments ago. On impact, I had a sharp intake as an imperfection on the rock hit my wound sending a wave of pain through my body and my vision went hazy before I blacked out. Coming to a second later, my vision was fuzzy and all I could see was this fuzzy blob that walked towards me. As my vision focused in I could see that Kayak towering over me with his same old sneer. I tried to get up but my body wouldn't respond and only succeeded in turning my head to glare at him. He cackled at me saying, "You have infiltrated my base, killed my men, and tried to take my life. I congratulate you for your efforts but none the less, you failed."

Rising his staff to deliver the final blow I knew that this was the last fight I will have. Closing my eyes I must have imagined this but I swear I heard heavy foot steps coming from the cavern. _'They almost sounded like heavy armored boots running this way.'_ I thought to myself. _'No, it couldn't be Chi, your mind is plating tricks on you.'_ I waited for the blow to hit me, but it never came. Opening my eyes again I could see that Kayak also heard this noise and he looked at the tunnel entrance with a frown. What happened next amazed me.

* * *

_**Chung's POV:**_

We all ran through the cave finding even more traces of combat from the corpses of bats and komodos to slashes in the rock. _'Come one Chi, where are you.'_ We continued on when we all started to hear fighting off in the distance.

"Who could that be?" Elsword asked and everyone stopped while I kept on running.

"Chung where are you going! You don't know if whoever is making that noise is friendly or not!" Rena called after me but I kept on running knowing who it was causing all that noise. Everyone followed soon after me as I charged ahead. Rounding the final corner, I could see what can only be Kayak standing over a familiar girl with orange hair. "Chi!" I yelled charging him. She moved slightly as I shouted her name and Kayak brought his staff down to confront me. I grabbed my Destroyer's handle with both of my hands and spun around in a circle twice before letting it fly in a straight line aimed for Kayaks head. It flew true to my aim and caught Kayak off guard. I ran straight forward as my Destroyer bounced off Kayak's head and spun freely in the air. Kayak was stumbling backwards from the the impact of my destroyer and before he had regained his balance I leapt into the air catching my Destroyer. Angling myself at Kayak in the air, I aimed and fired my Destroyer hurtling myself at the unsuspecting Kayak.

"Gigantic Impact!" I yelled before slamming into the ground sending Kayak flying backwards. I jumped backwards landing in front of Chi who leaning on her arm for support on the ground.

"I will not let anyone else get hurt!" Slamming one end of my cannon into the ground pieces of my armor started to shift and bend as it slowly covered my head. My sight went black as my helmet covered my eyes but as the last piece was set into place, the El energy flowed through my helmet, powering up the helmet's display system. Kayak was now getting up from the assault angry.

"How dare you interrupt the skirmish I was having with her!" He yelled at me. "You're here to help her aren't you! People who help her WILL DIE!" He charged at angrily but I hunkered down into my Siege Shelling stance and started to blast away. Chi was now completely aware of her surroundings when she had asked me, "Why did you come and save me?"

In between blasts form my cannon I answered. "Because, nnfff, I still have a debt to pay off, hnn, and plus you looked like you need some help dealing with this guy." Staying in my Siege Shelling stance, Kayak emerged from the smoke huffing and puffing and started to get really agitated.

"So kid, you wanna PLAY!?" He yelled furiously. "TAKE THIS SUMMON!" A shadow Warrior appeared out of no where and started to charge me and Chi. I sent cannon ball after cannon ball at him but he just weaved through each attack and was about to get in striking distance when I heard something from behind me.

"Charge Shot!" A glowing blue bullet streaked over my head hitting the Shadow Lizardman in the head. He slid harmlessly to the side of my and I felt a hand on my shoulder before I got up.

"Chung, next time try not to rush ahead of everyone without explaining yourself, it's not like you to do that." Kayak was now charging us in a blind rage and was about to shoot him when Blaze shook his head. I turned my head to him confused when I heard it.

"Explosion Trap." It was a whisper and I could barley hear it when I saw a green arrow laying the path that Kayak was charging. Smirking under my helmet I got up and pulled out my Silver Shooter just incase it doesn't work. As Kayak stepped onto the trap, it exploded launching him into the air.

"Hornet Sting!" A missile then flew in between me and Blaze angling upward at Kayaks flying body. It exploded and kept him airborne.

"Plasma Cutter!" A laser then followed suit pushing him into a nearby wall. Eve, Aisha, Elsword, and Raven rushed ahead to finish off Kayak while Rena and Blaze stayed behind to check on Chibella.

* * *

_**Blaze's POV:**_

_'Chung must really like her if he charged ahead of everyone with no explanation.'_ I grinned at that thought. Pulling my 416 rifle out and stood guard as Rena dressed Chibella's wounds.

"You just had to go and strain your wound to a point where it reopens." Rena worked on by cleaning the wound then wrapping it in some clean gauze.

"Thanks you," she said in a weak voice. She then sat up and slowly got up to her. Chung offered his hand and she took it gratefully and sued his shoulder as a brace point. At that Aisha, Raven, Elsword, and Eve returned completing the deed.

"How's Kayak doing?"

"He won't be bothering us anymore." Raven replied. Elsword walked up to Chi with a sad expression on his face.

"Chi is it really-"

"Yes, Elsword... it really is me." He lightened up a bit and had a smile of relief on his face.

"Everyone thought that you where dead. It's just... well... I am just glad you are alive!" He went up and hugged her and she let out a low grunt and he stepped back quickly. "Ya, the wound. I'm sorry."

"But I still have a question for you Chibella." Chung asked. His mask had retracted back into his suit revealing his face.

"Please, call me Chi."

"All right then Chi, my question is: Will you stay with us in our travels?" She hesitated for a second considering his question. Looking down for a moment, she looked back up at Chung's face and replied, "Sure, I will join you and the others 'cause some one will have to watch over you or who knows what trouble you will get into." She smiled at him making him blush a little. "Also those pikachu ears you have are very interesting." She pulled on one of the 'ears' which made him go redder and everyone laughed at that.

"Ay! Don't pull on those too hard, it hurts." Chung said looking away. Everyone just laughed even harder at that.

"Well enough of that we all should head back to Bethma and turn in this quest. It will also give Chi and Chung some alone time." I winked at them at that and both of their faces started to glow redder.

"Shut it Blaze!" They yelled at in unison and I chuckled turning around heading back to the house. We where half way out of the place when Proto decided to pop out for a visit. She appeared in front of me upside down head level catching me completely off guard.

"So we have a new person in the group Blaze?" I fell backwards when she appeared unexpectedly in front of my and I could here a chuckle from Elsword who had his arm over Eve's shoulder. Getting up from the ground I glared at Proto for a moment and then introduced Chi to Proto.

"Yes, Proto, we do have a new member of our group and her name is Chi. Chi Proto, Porto Chi." Proto hovered over to Chi, who is leaning on Chung's shoulder for support, and looked her over then at Chung.

"She your girlfriend?" Chung face lit up again and Chi looked angry.

"Proto!"

"What, I'm just asking but judging by your reactions, I say that you two are." She winked at them and then floated back over to me.

"How can there be two of that one girl?" Chi looked angry but at the same time confused.

"My name is Eve by the way, and she is the code that I had used to become this." Eve responded.

"Oh that explains a lot." Chi rolled her eyes. "What next, is she going to say that a code has a boyfriend or something."

"Actually I do," She floated over to me grabbing my arm and nipped my cheek which sent my face into a flurry of red.

"What!? Who ever said that I was your boyfriend!?"

"I did, and I know that you know it too." She smiled at me hugging my arm.

"What ever did I do to make you think I was your boyfriend?" She only giggled at that and everyone else where trying to suppress their laughter and started to shack.

"Oh come on Blaze, stop denying the fact that you like me." She then kissed my cheek making me flinch away from her and my face was now a brighter red than Elsword's hair. Everyone couldn't hold it in anymore and broke down laughing.

"You guys are no fun!" I said turning around throwing my arms up and started to walk out of this place leaving everyone else in their laughing state. They caught to me soon and I looked back at Chi when a thought occurred.

"Hey, Chi. Why do you have your hair covering your left eye?" She hesitated and a dark overcast came over her as old memories came back to her.

"No, no you shouldn't know."

"Come on Chi, how bad could it be?" Chung pushed.

"Fine, fine but please don't hate me for it." Everyone was watching her as she moved her hand to remove the hair that covered her eye to revile an empty cavern where an eye used to be. Rena passed out from the sight, Aisha covered her mouth with her hand and stepped back in horror. Raven was shocked but quickly went to pick up Rena bridal style. Elsword looked wide eyed at her as Eve looked shocked but also confused while Chung was at first shocked but it was quickly consumed with rage. I looked from the empty eye socket then back at Chi who had this sad face.

"What happened to you Chi, aren't humans supposed to have two eyes?" Eve asked curiously.

"Who ever did this I will make them pay!" Chung said clenching his fists.

"It was gouged out when I was 6 after I had witnessed the execution of my parents by some demons."

"Oh you poor thing!" Aisha reassured her.

"Lets keep on moving we are very close to Bethma." I Said walking on. '_Chi you didn't deserve all that pain you experienced in your childhood. No one ever needed to experience what you had.'_

* * *

**Chibella's POV:**

We slowly caught up with Blaze after our laughing fit and made it back to Bethma. Turning in the mission we all got back to the house that they gave me my own room and Rena had applied a new salve coating and gauze over my wound. Laying in my bed I was pondering over my many thoughts. _'So Chi, you made the choice to stay with the others, made up with Elsword, and met a code that apparently likes Blaze. Man that was funny and cute how Blaze reacted to her! Though you may have joined them doesn't mean that you can trust them. I mean I am the Half Breed Terrorist after all. The only person that you can trust right now is Chung a lone. Plus, I do admit it after bashing myself all those times, I do like him after all. But I will need to become stronger to keep up with the others. But how?'_ I turned over in my bed and looked at the Zentai when a thought occurred to me.

_'What if I can wake the lunar side of the Zentai artifact? Will doing that grant me more power?' _I Yawned and rubbed my eyes and rolled back over on my bed._ 'I will consider that later,'_ I thought as I drifted off into a deep slumber.

* * *

_I wake to find myself laying on this dark area. "Where am I" My voice echoed when I started to hear some snoring... "Wait snoring!? Who's there!" I yelled. The snoring stopped with a startle and then yawned. I looked around confused to where the noise was coming from when it started to talk to me._

_"So you are the girl that I was sealed into." The voice said._

_"Who are you!" I demanded._

_"You don't know who I am? Why I am the Lunar side of Zentai. You have woken me from a deep slumber. You have woken the nightlife that dwells inside of you and you can't go back now. Do you wish to become stronger?"_

_"Yes, I do wish to become stronger to make sure that I can get back at the demons that have done this to me."_

_"As you wish. I shall let you use my power. You are now a guardian and servant of the moon, you are now a Crescent Reaper." The voice trailed off at the end and my body started to glow a stark white which glowed brighter and brighter until everything went up into a white flash._

* * *

I woke up with a gasp and looked out of my window to see sunlight beaming in. Sighing I laid back down on my bed wonder if the dream that I had was real or not. Getting out of my bed, I walked towards the door passing a mirror when something caught my eye. Walking backwards I looked toward the mirror and jumped back letting a quite "eep" escape from my mouth. _'When did I ever get these clothes!?'_ I thought to myself. I wore now a black cloak. Under the cloak I wore a short azure dress with white 'wings' on the sides, with some tight black capris with white flats. I then looked up at my Zentai scythe seeing that it had changed. The blade now glimmered a golden color of the moon's reflection. Not only had my scythe changed but my Dark Elf Knife had also changed from a single edged one to a double edged one. 'I guess my that my dream last night wan't a random thing after all.'

A knock sounded at my door and Rena entered. "Chi you awake yet? 'Cause breakfast is ready and everyone is waiting for you." She then noticed the change with me and cocked her head to the side. "Ok, what's with the new get up?" She asked curiously.

"To be honest, I'm not really sure. But I think I just woken the lunar side of the Zentai in me."

"Well what ever happened to you doesn't change the fact that breakfast is ready. Come on your lover boy is down there waiting for you." She turned with a smile on her face.

"He's not my lover boy!" She only laughed as she walked down the hall way. I crossed my arm defiantly and followed her down to be greeted with friendly faces and good smelling food. We were enjoying our breakfast knowing that there won't be anymore mission until we get any word of the El and Wally's wear about. We all were chatting with each other, talking about some tactics and just some friendly conversations. Eve Proto decided to pop out to talk some. She snuggled right in with Blaze and he didn't really seem to mind that much anymore when Richian burst through the door.

"I am terribly sorry about this and I know that you aren't supposed to get anymore missions but this is important!'

'Spit it out already!" Elsword wined.

"The mines that are close to Bethma have been dormant for years. What worries me is that people have been seeing activity around the mine entrance, and I think something has taken refuge in those mines."


	6. Chapter 6

**Anon: YAY I FINALLY GOT IT DONE!**

**Raven: Finally you got it done, what took you so long?**

**Anon: I hit a writers block in one of the scenes -w-  
**

**Elsword: Riiiiiiggghhhhtttt...  
**

**Anon: -_-* Chi?  
**

**Chi: Yes?  
**

**Anon: Get your Gopher Army and get Elsword for me.  
**

**Chi: *Cracks her knuckles* With pleasure :)  
**

**Elsword: OH COME ON!  
**

**Chi: GET BACK HERE ELBAKA! *Runs after Elsword with her army in trail*  
**

**Sorry for the long update but ya... writers block... they suck =w= Anyway enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

_**Proto's POV:**_

I laying around in Eve's head, board out of my mind. Sighing I thought, _'Man, mornings are never exciting happens in the morning, and then there's Blaze... He knows that I love him but he acts like he doesn't love me back. But how he acts around me and responds to my actions tell me other wise.' _Sitting up I kept on thinking about him,_ 'Now how can I make him give in?'_ Popping out of Eve's mind, I started to wander the halls floating around the house when a plan formed into my head. _'Ohhhh Blaze is going to love this~!'_ Going to Blaze's room I peeked through the the door, I could see he was still fast asleep. Sneaking over to his bed, I floated over him and slipped under the covers of his bed opposite of him and waited. _'Come on sleepyhead wake up already!'_As I waited for Blaze to wake up, Eve's sleepy voice came into my head.

_'Proto where and what are you doing?'_

_'I'm only having some fun here.'_

_'Proto?'_

_'Fine, I'm giving Blaze a little 'surprise' when he wakes up~! You wana watch through my eyes?'_

_'Sure, why not. I bet it will be entertaining to watch.'_Giving access to what I can see to her is when Blaze started to stir. He mumbled something in audible laying on his back starring up at the celling for a good minute when he turned to face me. Smiling I kissed him lightly on his lips. Coming out of the kiss his face is a bright red and in shock. "Morning sleepy head~." He jumped out of his bed face burning and I laughed.

"W-w-when did you get into my bed Proto! And what's with the kiss?"

"What, you didn't like it?" I frowned at him sadly adding some puppy eyes that defeated him easily.

"No that's not what I-"

"Oh so you did like it!" Getting out of his bed I slowly walked towards him.

"No, it's just I-" Placing my finger on his mouth I looked him straight in the eye.

"Come on Blaze, you're still trying to deny the fact that you love me?" I backed backed him up against a wall and removed my finger from his kips and looked him in the eye waiting for an answer.

"I just... I just don't know Proto." Stepping back to give him some room, I tilted my head to the side confused. He pressed his back up against the wall and slid down and continued talking. "Ever since that bandit raid, my life has been turned upside down. I had a simple life back in Eden until Banthus raided that caravan and I started to remember parts of my past. Then Mark had died, my village was burned down, and here I am going on a mission to find the lost El. I just don't know anymore." Crouching down to eye level he had lifted his head up to look at me.

"So you're blaming yourself for all the events that had happened before?"

"No! That's not what I... no you're right. I am blaming myself for all that had happened. There are all of these, 'What if I could' going through my head trying to figure out what I could have done to prevent any of this from happening."

"What had happened before is in the past now, stop thinking of the past and think of the future. This isn't like you Blaze. You had a fighting spirit that blazed inside of you, but now it's as subtle as a light candle." He looked up at me and I could see the all present flame in his eyes starting to shimmer some and he smiled at me.

"You know what, you're right Proto. Thank you for those words, they really helped me get back on my feet." He then leaned forward and kissed me lightly before getting up and left his room. I stayed crouch there shocked at what happened with a blush on my face before smiling, closing me eyes, and going back to Eve's mind.

_**(Ya... I sorta suck at the mushy stuff -w-)**_

_'So how did it feel like to be kissed?'_

_'What how did you...oh ya..."_

_'I you and him make a great pair~!'_

_'Oh shut up you.'_

_'What I am telling the truth.'_

_'Well, I think you should really get up now, everyone is starting to stir and you can be with your lover Elsword~.'_

_'What!? He is- He's not- It's just err...'_

_'Point made later love bird~!'_I said and started to fade from her mind.

* * *

_**Blaze's POV:**_

_'What a weird experience I had with Proto though I have a feeling that I am going to need to get used to that. Plus, I think you also admitted that you like her too.'_I blushed a bit at the thought and smiled to myself as I went down stair. I was then greeted by Rena who was wearing an apron and cooking our breakfast.

"Morning Rena."

"Mornin' Blaze."

"Mmmmm, something smells good. What's cookin'?" She turned around and smiled at me as I sat down at the table.

"Scrambled eggs and bacon... Did something happen to you Blaze, 'cause you're blushing."

"Wh-what!?" I touched my hand t my cheeks to have them warm to the touch. "Nothing happened!" I must have answered to quickly because Rena only cocked her head to the side raising an eyebrow and smiled at me in her devious preying way.

"You sure nothing happened? 'Cause I swear I heard something going on upstairs." SHe winked at me making me blush even more.

"Fine fine fine. But swear that you won't tell anyone else."

"I promise."

"Me and Proto kissed in the morning." I said sheepishly. She first looked at me blankly but a smile started to form on her face. Raven then came down the stairs yawning and Rena went over and greeted him with a light kiss on the cheek. Leaning back in my chair, I waited for the others to come down for breakfast. Little by little, the gang started to come down one by one with Elsword and Chung practically tumbling down the stairs for the bacon. Everyone was practically here except for Chi, she must still be sleeping. I can't blame her after what she went through last night. After some time Aisha decided to go upstairs to wake up Chi and what came next was something no one would have expected.

"Chi, what's with the new get up?" Elsword asked as he looked on.

"I'm not completely sure, but I am almost positive that in waking the lunar side of the Zentai artifact." We all look in curiosity with the new change. After moments of silence, Elsword decided to break it.

"Different or not, she is still the same Chi that we know. After some thought, I think it would be wise for you to wear this." He tossed her this black object towards her and she caught it to revile it was an eye patch. "You should wear it and cover up that left eye of yours."

"But I've been fine without it for a long time."

"It's not for your sake, it's for Rena's. We wouldn't want her to pass out again right?" Everyone turned too look at Rena who was huddled under Raven's arm looking away from everyone else sheepishly. Everything soon returned back to normal when a certain Nasod decided to visit us at the table. Proto popped into her physical form and landed in my lap and wrapped her arms around me neck kissing me on the cheek.

"So I heard something along the lines of Chi being different?"

"Ya she did. Apparently she awakened the Lunar side of her and made her like this." Chung said.

"So that's what happened?"

"It sure did," Chi answered. "Though I have also seen a change in Blaze too."

"What do you mean 'Change'?"

"You are so much more excepting to Proto now. I mean look how you're not protesting about her sitting in your lap or that kiss she gave you." Everyone started to stare at me and I started to blush some. I looked over at Rena for some help but she only had a grin that had, 'I told you so' written all over it.

"Now that you mention it, you make a great point Chi." Elsword smirked stupidly as he said that and snatched the last piece of bacon.

"Oi! What'd you think you're doing their Elsword!?" Aisha yelled at him.

"What do you think I am doing? I am eating some food. I need food to live."

"Ya but that's your tenth piece of bacon and not to mention the last one!"

"What ever purple head." He said as he slid the last piece of juicy bacon int his mouth and started chewing.

"Why you condescended red head!"

"What is it now flat chest?"

"Flat chest!? WHY I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!" Aisha summoned her wand and preceded to chase Elsword around the table and beat him on the head. I watched from my seat as Elsword ran around with his hands on his head with Aisha trailing not far away. They ran for some time, and was some good morning entertainment until Rena stepped in. She grabbed both of them by their collars as they passed by her and she had this dark aura around her.

"Now the two are the two of you going to stop fighting, or am I going to put you in your place?"

"N-n-n-no need for that Rena. See me and Elsword are friends right Elsword?" She gave him a 'I will kill you if you don't agree' smile at him and he understood clearly.

"Y-ya Rena! We aren't fighting!" She released them both and was now back in her cheery self.

"Hey Eve, how many times does that make the two of them fighting?" She thought for a moment then replied.

"That is maybe the...twentieth time that the two of them fought with each other and ended with Rena's demonic form."

"I usually don't get mad but those two always seem to push me over." She shrugged and everything had returned back to normal. We all where chatting with each other when an unexpected knock sounded at the door.

"Now who could that be?" Raven asked no one in particular as he went to the door. At the door we found Richian standing there looking uneasily.

"I thought we were off the hook until you got some Intel on Wally's whereabouts?"

"I am truly sorry for bugging you right now, but this is important."

"Spit it out already!" Elsword rushed him.

"All right, all right. I have been hearing people say that they have been seeing activity starting at the Richie Mines."

"So? It's a mine what did you expect." Aisha said slightly annoyed.

"That's the thing, that mine has been closed down for years because it was too unstable for anyone to mine there. I need you to check things out and get to the bottom of this mystery." He then left and we all knew what we had to do.

"Gear up and regroup outside in five." Raven commanded. We all nodded and Proto returned back to Eve's head and we all left for our rooms. Strapping on the multiple holsters I have, and placing the many armaments I had, I checked all the compartments on my bandolier to make sure that they were locked into place and headed back down stairs. With everyone here and ready for action, we set out for the Richie mines.

100 yards out from the mine entrance we could see that there were people... no robots stationed outside of the entrance. _'Robots? What are they doing here?'_I thought as I looked on when Chung spoke up.

"What are Nasod's doing here?"

"I don't know but it might mean that Wally is here as well. We are going to need to take care of those guards outside." Elsword explained. "Rena could you go over there and-" We all looked at where Rena used to be when I saw that Chi and herself where way ahead of us and started to sneak in to silently destroy them. Pulling out my M24, I pulled down the bipod legs and steadied it on a nearby rock, I zeroed my sights onto the two Nasod drones. I looked around where I had last saw Chi and Rena to find them missing. Shifting the scope around the place, some movement above the two drones caught my eye as Chi and Rena descended on top of the two of them destroying them quickly. Retracting the bipod legs we moved forward to meet the others and ventured down into the mines entrance.

We ventured for sometime and the deeper we went into the entrance, the more we could hear drills grinding away at the rock and machinery moving around. As we exited the tunnels entrance, we could make out a huge cavern filled with Nasod miners. We all looked around in awe with what was happening. We were interrupted as a mine cart flew by us. We all jumped to the side and I drew my pistol firing off a few shots into the Nasod drone that was pushing it. The cart that the miner was pushing came to a halt and we all went over to examine it. Eve had then pulled a holographic display that started to scan the rocks inside the cart. Picking one of the many rocks inside the cart, I broke one open to find many small El crystal shards.

"Eve, what do your scanners say about these rocks?"

"From what my scans had came up with, different metals and El stone that are in these rocks. The Nasod that Blaze killed is made up of the same metals that are in this ore."

"So I have a feeling that we have found out where Wally has snaked off to. But the amount of time that he has had when we were helping out Bethma has given him time to do what ever he wanted to."

"And in that time, he had created his own Nasod army to do his bidding." Chi chimed in.

"Well there must be a place where he is refining all of this, lets continue through the mine." I said pulling out my 416 rifle.

"Agreed,"

We walked on for a bit when we came across a giant stretch of Nasod Miners, Nasod Excavators, and Nasod Healers. They all where mining at the rock until we came along and now they all where facing us. Elsword conjured up a fire ball in one of his hands, Raven had drew his sword and got into his battle stance and Rena drew Erendil. Chi twirled her scythe around while Eve made Moby and Reby into spears, and Chung loaded his cannon. "Huh, this will be fun." I said.

Running forward, I jumped onto a Nasod healer and pulled my pistol out, leaving my assault rifle slung around my arm, and fired three times at points blank range, riding it down to the ground, I pulled out my SMG and shot at two Nasod miners that were standing in front of me. The others ran past me as I holstered both of my weapons, drew my assault rifle, and ran after them. Chung and Elsword were combating with a Nasod Excavator which blew up into a flash of blue light while Raven was hacking away at any Nasod in his path and ran to assist Rena who was starting to get over ran with enemies. Stopping I fired a few burst chopping some of the Nasod around Rena and left the rest for Raven when an explosion went off behind me. Pivoting on my left foot, I turn around in a crouch with my right leg forward drawing my pistol, to only find a a Nasod blown up by Aisha.

Nodding to her I looked up to see Eve throwing Nasod spears at everything and saying something along the lines of, " You are not fit to be called a Nasod!" She was so focused on the enemies behind her that she hadn't notice the enemies that were coming up from behind her. Switching to my sniper rifle quickly I started to pick of the enemies slowly but there was one that I had missed and I tried to make a fallow up shot and missed again. The Nasod Miner that got through was now danger close to Eve and I had no time to get off another shot before it makes it to Eve. I look on as I rack the bolt when a golden blade came down on the charging Nasod destroying it. I mentally slapped myself for my poor shooting and ran forward to join the others. Shifting form left to right, I fired my rifle at any Nasod that was about to attack. We ran and attacked for some time when a giant drill came out of nowhere and barreled right at me. I only had enough time to jump to the right but he still caught my upper left arm and my assault rifle. Tumbling to the right, I look down to where the searing pain was coming from to find a large gauge in it. I then looked at my rifle to see that the barrel was horrible disfigured rendering it useless. Clutching my wound I look up into the two red eyes of a Nasod Driller holding his spinning drill high in the air ready to bring down the final strike when I heard Chung yell, " Heavy Railgun!"

The Nasod Driller was tossed to the side in an explosion of blue light and smoke. Everyone else ran forward to engage the Nasod driller while Rena and Chi came to my side. "Good luck guys," I whispered out.

"Blaze, I need you to remove your hand so I can inspect your wound." Nodding I removed it to have an explosion of pain emanate from my arm.

She examined the wound and a worried look came over her face and through clenched teeth I ask,"How bad is it?"

"It doesn't seem that there is any infection or that the wound is extremely bad, but I can't completely heal it up here." Chi was standing guard when she turned around with a solution to the problem.

"I'm not completely sure if this will work, but Zentai told me that this might help with healing your arm."

"Thank you Chi." I looked beyond her as something caught my eye. My eyes widened as I realized what was behind her. "Chi hit the deck!" With she looked at me confused for a second when she realized what was happening and dropped down to the ground in a heart beat. "Adrenaline Rush!" Time slowed down as adrenaline filled my veins and my reaction time increased. Pulling out my pistol I shot off multiple shots at the Nasod Miner that had it's drill raised ready to strike. It sparked through the 5 new holes in it's head.

"Oh wow, thanks Blaze. Now I think this might help, Reaper's Serenade." She started sing about the pains of her life and when she ended my arm was healed. Rotating it experimentally I had found no pain.

"Thanks Chi." Walking over to my assault rifle, I examined it closer to find the barrel mangled beyond repair. Sighing, I placed it back in the holster and drew my pistol and SMG. We caught up with the others as they stood around the smoking wreckage of the Nasod Driller and Elsword had decided that we have gone far enough wants to turn around and head back.

"I don't know Elsword. We've went a long way through this place and it can't be that long until we reach a place where it all ends." Chi complained.

"I know that but, I think it might be to dangerous to venture farther into the cave. I mean Blaze had some of his equipment destroyed and nearly got himself killed in the process."

"I don't feel that conformable knowing that there might be something else deeper in that cave."

"Fine fine, you and Chi can go ahead and recon the area but strictly recon. I don't want to have to come back here and bail you out. Good luck." Elsword and the others turned around and started to head back to Bethma. Turing around I nodded to Chi and we started to snake our way through the mines jumping from cover to cover. We went on for a bit longer and was about to turn around when a noise caught my ear.

"Do you hear that?" I whispered to her and got a nod in return. Turning around, I looked towards the source of the sound to find a dark cave with a speck of light on the other side. Walking in a crouch to the exit of that cavern, we came up on a sight that we couldn't believe. Far bellow us are multiple rail cart lines that pushing into this ship docked outside. Pulling out my M24, I hunkered down behind a rock and started to scope out the area when I spotted something...no someone among the Nasod's. It was Wally.

"No way..." I said under my breath.

"What is it? You know that I don't have super vision."

"You won't believe this, but I see Wally down there. And if Wally is down there, then that must means the El is close by."

Her eyes went wide at that and I soon got a bead on Wally location and he was standing in front of a giant Nasod that could only be a Wally No.8.

"Great, he made another one of those Wally No.8 robots. That thing gave us some trouble the first time that we fought him but." Keeping an eye on Wally as he walked away from the giant robot construct, he started to walk off to a giant metal box that just seemed out of place. As he opened it both of my eyes grew wide as a blue light radiated out through the open doors.

"Chi, I think we just found ourselves Ruben's missing El." Turning around to face her, a familiar looking robot bolted past us knocking Chi into me. Pushing her off of myself, I rushed over to my rifle and took aim at the Nasod Healer and pulled the trigger. THe crack of my gun reverberated through the massive cavern and the Nasod Healer was hit. It trailed smoke as it rolled around trying to stay in control when it went crashed into a complex. My eyes widened as I saw the sign right above, "Fuel Dump"

"Run for your damn life!" I yelled pulling Chi to her feet. We ran for 5 feet when a huge explosion sounded behind us. A sharp pain came from my back as I shielded Chi from the blast, but it still launched us into the air slamming me into the rock wall. The last thing I saw was Chi's body rolling on the ground from the blast before I blackout.

* * *

**Everyone:...**

**Anon: What?**

**Everyone: You left a cliff hanger...  
**

**Anon: And everyone just LOVES cliff hangers :3  
**

**Blaze: And why do I have to get hurt so many times in this chapter?  
**

**Proto: *Demon form* Yes Anon, why does he have to get hurt so many times? owO  
**

**Anon: *Sweat drops* Umm because I made a slight change in Blaze's Job Change?  
**

**Proto: OMO Not good enough!  
**

**Blaze: Proto, eas of the guy ok? He did go through the struggle in that one scene  
**

**Anon: Yep, I can't write mushy stuff XD but I can write action scenes ._. Anyway rate and review if you like :3  
**


	7. Chapter 7

**Anon: Yes I finally got around in completing this story!**

**Raven: Meh... *Reads magazine*  
**

**Proto: Raven don't be so rude!  
**

**Raven: What did I ever do!?  
**

**Anon: Aw thanks Proto *Hugs Proto*  
**

**Elsword: Anon and Proto sitting in sitting in a tree  
**

**Proto and Anon: Finish that sentence and you will regret it  
**

**Elsword: Hehehe...  
**

**Well anyway enough talking and now onto the story!  
**

* * *

_**Chibella's POV:**_

_'Where am I?' I thought to myself as I examined my new environment. 'All I know is that this isn't the Richie Mine for sure.' I look around the place I was in and it all seemed familiar but I just couldn't put my finger on it when a voice rang out. 'Chi you must snap out of this!' _

_'Who are you? Identify yourself.' I look around drawing my scythe and stood in a defensive stance ready for anything that comes my way._

_'Chi it's me, Zentai! You must get up now! The situation is very dire and both of your lives, Blaze and you, are in danger.' I look down as the floor started to crumble under my feet and I fell into a black abyss._

I woke with a gasp and I quickly came to my senses._ 'That's right. Blaze and myself went farther on recon the area up ahead. There was this explosion before I was knocked out.'_I brushed some orange dust off of my dress when I noticed Blaze's motionless body a few feet away from where I had been. Dread filled me as I thought the worse but was relieved to see his chest rising and falling. He looked fine and was knocked out form the blast when I noticed his back. The back of his jacket was torn in a few places, but there was this one spot where a orange rock was embedded in his back.

_'What? How did that get there?'_ I thought when I remembered. Just before the explosion sent us flying, he had shielded me from most of the blast. _'I must do something about this wound.'_

_'No time Chi. The enemy are going to be here any minute now and Blaze is in no condition to fight. We need to move to a more secured area before we can do anything for him.'_Nodding, I slowly turned Blaze on his side, picked his arm over my shoulders, and began to half carry, half drag him out of the tunnel we had entered when I could hear foot steps coming from that cavern.

_'I must find a place to hide. Blaze is in no condition to fight and the weight is slowing us down. Jeez how does he carry all of this with such ease?' _I carried Blaze around for some time when he started to stir.

"Looks like someone is coming around finally."

"Wha? Chi, is that you?"

"It's me."

"Where are we and what happened?"

"We are in a cave that we had cleared out earlier today. As for what had happened, after the explosion I had regained consciousness to find you injured and the enemy starting to move in to finish the attackers off."

Blaze sighed and tried to stand up but winced in pain and slumped back down.

"Don't move to much Blaze. In the blast a piece of shrapnel had lodged into you back."

"Then why don't you remove it when we where back in the cave." He said between clutched teeth.

"I'm sorry I couldn't do it then. They where going to discover us and I don't think that I could heal the wound in time."

"Also, Chi can't use Reaper's Serenade ability again. She can only use it once per day."

"Who's that?"

"Oh ya... this is Zentai, the artifact that was sealed inside me. Also the one that had gave me all of this power."

"Good though can we find a place to hide? This shrapnel is really pissing me off."

Sighing at that, I continued to drag him when I found this comfy little cave with a narrow entrance that concealed us nicely from the main passage. I pulled away his jacket and shirt to find that the damage was much more severe than I had anticipated. There where multiple tinny gashes with some small rocks in them but there was this one spot where a fairly large rock laid wedged in his back.

"How bad is it?"

"It's nothing completely severe but..." He raised an eyebrow at me as I tried to put it as mellow as I could.

"Please be frank with me Chi, how bad is it?"

"There are some minor scratches and your jacket protected you from most of the shrapnel but there is a fairly large rock stuck in there."

"You're going to pull it out."

"What?"

"I said, you're going to need to pull it out."

"That's crazy! I can't clean a wound like this, only Rena can and they must be way out of the cave by now."

"Look, I know that this isn't the best idea to pull it out, but you need to. I'm no use to you as I am, but without that shard in my back I will have some better range of movement." He said after pulling his glove off with his teeth. "Now please just pull it out."

His voice was muffled by the glove but I understood. Taking out the necessary material I needed for a temporary bandage, I bent down to pull it out.

"You ready?" He nodded at me and shut his eyes bracing for the pain to come. Taking a deep breath I grasped at the rock and yanked it out. Blaze grunted loudly as it came and his body twitched for a few moments when I started to go to work cleaning the wound and patching it up.

After a minute of work, I leaned back and checked out my handy work. _'There is so much more work that would have to be done but we have no time.'_ My stomach growled at me and I grinned slightly. _'Well all of this is making me hungry. I haven't had anything to eat since breakfast. It must be well into noon.'_ Blaze was sleeping off soundly against a wall. He must have passed out when I was working on his wound. Rummaging around my pack, I pulled out my water skin and a hard tart. Taking a swig from the skin, I break off an edge of the tart and start nibbling on it as my thoughts drifted off into the distance. _'I wonder if the others know what situation we must be in? They must have heard or even felt the shock wave form that explosion. Would they know where to find us? Will they-'_My thoughts trailed on for some time and I barley missed Blaze from waking up.

"Ah, you're awake."

"How did it go?"

"I got the shard out but I can only do so much to heal it. You will need to get to Rena if we ever get out of here."

"We will get out of here. It's only in a mater of time till we get out, or they will find us." He then looked towards the entrance of the cave.

"You hear that right?"

"Wow they caught up to us fast."

Blaze donned his cloths and grabbed his pistol and SMG from their holsters and I summoned Zentai.

"You well enough to walk?" He stood up weakly and tried to walk forward but stumbled some.

"No, no I don't think I can walk," he said grasping his side in pain form the exertion. "We will have to hold them here. I just hope that the others will find us eventually." He sat back on a rock and faced towards the entrance in wait for the enemy to come.

"Please get here in time." I whispered as Blaze shot an enemy that had rounded the corner.

* * *

_**Eve's POV 20 minutes before:**_

We had just departed from Chi and Blaze and all of us where heading back to turn in the mission.

"You think they will find anything?" Rena asked curiously

"I'm not sure but sure enough they might have found some Nasod's here and there."

"I'm not sure but I had a bad feeling about having them go off on their own." Chung looked off to the side as we walked."

"What? You worried that Blaze and Chi might do something Chung?" Rena cocked her head to the side as she waited for an answer

"What? NO! NOTHING LIKE THAT!" His face started to light up and I let out a slight giggle.

"What was that about Blaze and Chi might do something?" Proto then came out with her arms crossed.

"Oh it's nothing that you need to worry about Proto." Aisha said jokingly.

"By the way where is Blaze and Chi?"

"There only out on a recon mission in going deeper into the caves. It's not as if something will happen right?" Raven jumped in explaining everything to her and she nodded as we reached the mines entrance when an explosion shook the ground below our own feet. Dust fell from some cracks in the rock above us as the ground shock and then came to a stop.

"The hell was that!?" Elsword yelled.

"That sounded like an explosion that came from deep inside of the mine..." Proto trailed off at the end and her realization had struck us too, Chi and Blaze are still deep inside of the mine. Without hesitation Proto and Chung rushed back into the mine with us trailing in the rear. We came up the the same mine shaft that we had left to only find it filled up with rubble caused by the explosion.

"I have no time for this JUNK BREAK!" Giant drills shot out into the rocks that lay in the path and where then pulverized creating a path for them to get through. Elsword was running next to me as we ran to find Blaze and Chi when he had asked me a question.

"I've never seen Proto like this before and do you think that Proto can handle herself in combat?"

"Please Elsword. If her power that she gave me can do what I do, then she can defiantly hold her own in combat."

"Speaking of combat we've go company." In front of us was a sea of Nasods that were trying to enter this slim cave entrance. From that entrance I can hear gun fire coming out of it and combat on the inside and we all knew who was in there. Proto was the first one to engage the sea of enemies.

"Atomic Blaster!" Nasod parts flew everywhere as the machine gun bullets shredded through their armor.

"Heavy Railgun!" A blue streak flew through the river of enemies tearing them apart and sending them flying in every which direction leaving a giant gap in the which we made our advance through.

"Plasma Cutter!" A red hot laser burst out of Aisha's finger destroying enough enemies to get us to the entrance Elsword, Aisha, and Raven went on ahead to destroy the rest of the other Nasod forces down the tunnel while Rena, Proto, and I went into the cave to inspect on Blaze and Chi. Stepping over many destroyed nasod bodies we came upon an exhausted Chi and a what looks like a wounded Blaze.

"Thank god you came when you did. Things started to get pretty hairy out there and I don't think that we would have made it out." Chi looked more cherry than before but Blaze seemed more pained.

"Is something wrong with Blaze?" Proto floated over to him worried as Chi explained the situation.

"I have a feeling that you felt that explosion earlier?"

"We all did."

"Blaze had shielded me from the blast and I guess he took some shrapnel in his back. I got out some of it but I can do only so much to help him."

"How exactly did this happen?" Proto asked Blaze as she helped him to his feet and braced him on her shoulder.

"Well, that's sorta my fault." He chuckled nervously while Rena, Proto and I looked at him curiously and waited for him to continue. "This will be shocking but during our recon mission when we came along to a giant ship where all the minerals from the mine are being shipped off to. But there are two things you wouldn't believe we saw while there."

"What two things we wouldn't believe?" Elsword interrupted as Raven, Chung, and himself entered the cave and joined into the conversation.

"We saw Wally there direction the operations and the Nasod's around."

"You have got to be kidding me. Wally is here!? You're joking right Blaze?"

"I'm not but the second thing was that we saw that he had the El crystal. Chi and I were about to head back when a Nasod Healer had snuck up behind us and ran to warn Wally. I shot it and it flew into the area fuel dump thus the massive explosion." As Blaze finished his story, Proto looked mad about his story and slapped him across the face sending him staggering off into Chung. Everyone stared in aw at what had just happened.

"Don't you ever do anything stupid like that ever again. Got that?"

"I'm sorry Proto, I will try not to do anything else stupid anymore."

"I swear, I think I have to be out 24/7 to make sure you stay out of trouble." She walked over to him then and planted a kiss on his fore head before she had taken one of Blaze's arm over her shoulder and everyone started to move out of the mine.

"I have a feeling we just made a new addition to the team." Elsword said kissing me lightly on the cheek.

"She will be a good addition."

* * *

_**Proto's POV:**_

We made it back to Bethma in once piece and Rena went to work on Blaze for at least an hour and came out tiered from the concentration she must have put in.

"So how is he?"

"He's doing fine and is recovering remarkably fast too."

"Can I go in to see him?"

"Go right ahead. Ever since I removed the rest of the shrapnel from his back and treated his wounds, he's just been working on his weapons." Rena left to wash up and I walked over to Blaze's room knocking on the door.

"Door's unlocked," I entered his room to find him over at the table with one of his weapons.

"Whatcha working on over there?" I survey the many parts splayed out over the table.

"Just working on one of my guns, the barrel was trashed from one of the Nasods in the cave. I'm going to ask Toma if he could craft up a replacement part for it. Though there was something else that I had never gotten around to designing."

"What is it exactly?"

"Well a while ago I asked Chung how the system works in his helmet when he goes into his berserk mode and it apparently helps him with his aim along with enemy IFF signature."

"IFF signature?"

"It tells you wether the target is friend or foe."

"Aaahhh."

"I had thought of many different ways for it to be miniaturized though I could never fit everything into it. I've came up with a monocle design but I never could program the dang thing."

"I could do that."

"You could? Wow, that would saved me from a lot of trouble. Thanks Proto."

"Anything for you."

We spent a few hours debating on the final design of his invention when we made an agreement for one. Coming up with the design was one thing but building it was another. Blaze tinkered around with the monocle adding the necessary parts for it as my hands danced over my holographic keyboard typing up the program. I finished the program as he placed the small elshard into the monocle powering up the screen.

"Phase one is done and everything seems to work. Now onto phase two, installing the program. You ready for the connection?"

"Ready when you are."

"Right, start the installation."

_'God can this download bar go any slower?'_I thought as the blue bar inched it's way across the screen and after what seemed to me an eternity. As the blue bar reached 100 percent, the monocle screen started to light up and a wide grin came across both of our faces.

"Proto, I think we did it."

"We did. Go ahead, try it on."

* * *

_**Blaze's POV:**_

_'Wow I can'y believe we got it to work! This is extremely exciting!'_Placing the straps around my head, the monocle had worked better than I had ever thought. I look around on the display seeing an ammo counter on the bottom right corner. I looked around the room seeing it clearly and then looked at Proto. As I looked at her, her form was highlighter in a green and a little tag come off of her telling me it's her.

"I guess this was a success?"

"You have no idea how sweet this thing is."

"Have you tried switching through the different vision mode?"

"Wait there are more than just my regular view?"

"Ya, try swiping your right hand in front of the device."

I did as she told me, I swiped my hand across in front of me and a little icon of a moon came up in the upper left corner and the screen went green and everything seemed to become brighter and more distinct. I looked at in amazement and swiped my hand again to have a Sun appear in the place of the moon and everything was different shades of yellow, orange, blue, and red.

"What were those two modes?"

"The first one was a night vision mode. It will help you see into the darkness and the mode you are in is a thermal vision one. The redder the object, the hotter it is and the bluer the object is, the colder it is."

Swiping my hand again, I returned to my normal mode which had a regular eye in the corner.

"This is amazing Proto." I lost control of my body and it acted on its own as I leaned into Proto giving her a kiss. I pulled away and she smiled at me cocking her head off to the side. Rolling my eyes I got up grabbing some specs for Toma to craft a new barrel. I pulled on a shirt and jacket along with strapping my pistol into it's holster. Walking down stairs I tested the range and motion of my invention to find it was as fluent as if it were my actual eye.

Eve was over by the couch playing with Moby and Reby when she noticed me and looked at my right eye curiously. The two drones stopped for a second to look at me and then continued to fly around each other playfully.

"I see you're awake and healing quite nicely. Though what is that on your right eye?"

"Oh this thing? It's an invention that Proto and myself just made. Though I haven't come up with a name yet."

She eyed it curiously and inspected it closer before continuing. "What does it do exactly?"

"Well, it has 3 modes of view, regular, night, and thermal. It can identify friend and foe with an outline and gives a little tag that gives a name of the person. For instance I look at you and it identifies that you are Eve. This will also help me in my accuracy when I am shooting but I haven't tested it out."

"Interesting. Also, where are you heading off to?"

"I'm off to Toma's place. I need a new barrel for one of my guns so if anyone asks where I am tell them I'm over there. Later Eve"

Exiting the door I walked over to Toma's and asked if he can craft another barrel for my gun.

"A new gun barrel? Sure, I can craft one of those but it will take sometime. Come back in about 2 hours and it will be done. Though my curiosity got the better of me, but what is that on your right eye?"

"It's a new invention I just made with Proto that will help me in combat."

"Interesting. Well this metal won't start melding its self, later Blaze."

_'Ok, so I have a few hours to kill why not go and test out this new device with some targets.'_Smiling I walked back to the house, grabbed Proto and the rest of my equipment and headed to the back yard to our little training area. Proto gave me more instructions to push a button on the side to activate the targeting mode. Some targets that were placed down range lit up with red targeting indication and I took aim and fired hitting the target.

"Oh wow this thing is awesome!"

"Oh wow that worked better than I thought. Though it that was with stationary targets. Try hitting these three rocks while there in the air."

She threw the three rocks into the air and they light up red and I fired off 3 quicks shots at the rocks obliterating them in the air.

"Now lets test this when your moving around lets try this in the obstacle course."

"Ooohhhh this is a fun little device." I look on in front of me at the starting line as target after target was lit up with a red indicator. I pulled out my SMG and charged into the course. I fired two quick shots to the right as two targets fell and a quick burst to the left as I rolled to the slid to the right behind some cover. I rolled out to the left coming up in a kneeling position and fired off 3 quick bursts from both weapons in the targets before continuing with the course. I let lose my SMG as I strafed multiple targets to the left when I came up to an area where my HUD was filled up with red reticles all around. I ran up to a rock and boosted myself into the air and turned myself inverted, started to rotate, yelling out, "Aerial Bombardment!"

I start unloading on both guns and the targets slowly disappeared as each bullet found its target. Landing on the ground I could see that the others had come back and looked at me with surprised faces.

"Looks like you've recovered." Rena said.

"Recovered? Now that's an understatement he's improved!" Chung said in awe. "Dude how did you do it!"

"Come on tell us" Chi chimed in.

"I thank this little fella right here." Pointing to my right eye everyone fallowed and looked at the small thing. "The real thanks should go to Chung for giving my the idea for it with that helmet of his along with Proto for making the program that is being used to make this thing tick." I wrapped my arm around her and smiled as the others asked me questions about when we finished the others went inside and waited for dinner while I went back to pick up the barrel from Toma, paid for crafted part and returned to the others just in time as dinner was served.

"Since Blaze is now healed up enough for him to fight in combat, I say we pack up tomorrow and catch a ride on Wally's ship. We might be able to get aboard and fly that ship back to deliver the El."

Everyone agreed with his plan and parted ways for our rooms. After taking a quick shower, I placed the new barrel onto my assault rifle and hooked it up with the monocle to see if it would work before going to sleep knowing that there is a big day up ahead of us.

* * *

**Anon: Yep so Blaze gets this epic targeting system :D**

**Blaze: I feel so powerful now.  
**

**Anon: Oh god I really want that one part to be here now!  
**

**Everyone: What part?  
**

**Anon: The big reveal of Blaze's secret DX  
**

**Everyone: Why?  
**

**Anon: 'Cause he's in other author's stories and that's one thing that makes him interesting. Only two people know about the secret but still I MUST RESIST FROM DOING IT TOO EARLY!  
**

**Proto: *Slaps Anon* GET A HOLD OF YOUR SELF!  
**

**Anon: I'm fine now  
**

**Proto: That's great! *Hugs Anon*  
**

**Elsword: K-I-S-S-I-N-G  
**

**Proto and Anon: You better start running Elbaka  
**

**Elsword: WHY DOES NO ONE USE MY REAL NAME!?  
**

**Proto: ATOMIC BLASTER!  
**

**Anon: MUFFIN LAUNCHER!  
**

**Elsword: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!  
**


	8. Chapter 8

**Sorry for the long wait. I was suffering through another writers block bu I am good now. Anyways enjoy the story... oh ya and Happy Birthday Miharu ;D**

* * *

_**Elsword POV:**_

'I can't believe that we found the El crystal already!' I lay in my bed staring at the dark celling of the house. I couldn't sleep due to the excitement of not only finding the El, but also locating the traitor Wally. I must have dozed off for some time for the sun was starting to rise and some light started to shine through the window. Getting up I start packing everything knowing that we won't return to Bethma for some time. Heading down stairs I place my pack next to the door and sat on the front porch with my sword and a grind stone. I look on as the sun crested over Bethma as a new day begins.

'Wally you better be prepared 'cause we are coming for you and the El.' I sat there looking on at the sun for some time before heading in to place back my grinding stone in my pack, be greeted by a cherry Rena, and some great smelling food.

"Oh Elsword you're awake. You're almost never up this early in the morning."

"I guess that knowing Wally and the El are with in our reach has made me sort of anxious."

"Well you can go ahead and seat yourself, the others will be down soon."

* * *

_**Blaze's POV:**_

_"Sir, the Alpha and his friends are heading off towards the El to retrieve it and Wally still isn't airborne."_

_'This place again' I though glumly as I listing in on the conversation. 'And who is this Alpha their referring to?'_

_"Send in unit Zeta to retrieve the El from that ship if it is commandeered. That El is vital to the plans success and it mustn't fall into the hands of the enemy."_

_'What plans do they have in store?'_

_"It's only a matter of time until everything will be known to him."_

I woke up with a startle and sweat beading up on my forehead. '_It was just another one of those dreams. Though what do they mean by the Alpha? And who is this unit Zeta?'_

Wiping the sweat off, I look out the window wondering if any of this has to do with myself, if any of these dreams connects with my past. Replacing the monocle over my eye and powering it up. Packing up the few things that I bring along with me I head down stairs and placed it near the front door as well before meeting up with the others and went over the plan over breakfast.

"So our objective is to take over the ship and bring back the El to Ruben?"

"That practically much sums it all up. We are heading out in half an our. Pack up your gear and get ready for the a fight."

"Excited that we found the El I am assuming?" Elsword looked over at Raven raising his eyebrow with a little smirk on his face

"Excited is an understatement. I'm exhilarated to finally get back the El and take down Wally in one fell swoop."

"Though it won't be easy.

"Blaze something up? You've been quite for some time." Looking up I could see that everyone was looking at me. I guess I must have been thinking about that dream to much.

"No, no there's nothing wrong. I'm fine." I shook my head and everyone returned to their conversations between each other. I leaned back into my chair wrapping my arms behind my head and closed my eyes. _'Come on Blaze, get your mind out of the clouds and start thinking about the mission that awaits you.'_ Cleaning off my plate and placing it in the sink, I walked upstairs strapping on the rest of me gear and did a thorough inspection before meeting the others down stairs. Tightening my pack between my sniper rifle and assault rifle holsters, we all set out for the mines entrance.

We all stood at the entrance knowing the daunting task that laid ahead of us.

"You honestly think I would let you guys go in without me?" Proto appeared right above me and gave me a noogie .

"I wouldn't dream of it."

Everyone drew their weapons as we entered the mines entrance and started to run to make it to Wally's ship. Some Nasod drones where encountered but we made short work on them. Running for through passage to passage we finally made it to the giant cavern. Pulling out my sniper rifle I start scoping out the area marking targets when some movement caught my attention. Turning to it I could see Wally with a smug grin on his face as he directed a large metal case towards the ship. My eyes go wide shifting my head upwards.

"What do you see Blaze?"

"If we are going to get that El back, we have to move now. Wally is moving the El towards the ship as I speak." Zeroing back onto Wally I could clearly make out two large crates being pushed by some of the Nasod. Taking aim I fired off 5 quick shots killing off some of the Nasod in the pushing the crate.

"What!? Intruders! Find them and kill them! They mustn't get their hands on this El stone!" Wally yelled out rushing into the ship.

"I will thin out their numbers as you make your advance towards the ship." Firing off more shots before reloading, I could see them start to slide down to the ground level before sprinting towards the ship. I shifted left and right as my HUD lit up with enemies approaching the group and round after round where sent down range to have them hit their target. I was so focused on the others that a I hadn't noticed this Nasod that had snuck up behind me.

"Atomic Blaster!" The shots rang out behind me and I rolled onto my back drawing my pistol to find a smoking Nasod full of holes with an angry Proto standing to it's left.

"What am I ever going to do with you." She said shacking her head disapprovingly at me. Smirking at her I rolled back over going to my sniper rifle I notice a orange brown streak rushing upwards to my right and Proto fired at it. The smoking wreck of a Nasod Healer fell towards the ground as I looked over the edge to see multiple Nasod Drillers climbing to the top. Strapping down my sniper rifle back in it's holster, I flip out my assault rifle and fired a burst into two drillers that crested over the top. Nodding at Proto, we rushed the edge as another one popped its head over. Kicking it in the face it toppled backwards. Jumping over on top of the fallen Nasod, I started to ride it down the slope with Proto flying next to me with her machine gun in hand. Flying ahead, she turned around shooting to the left of me and I could see the impacts of the bullets in the dirt around the enemy and others that tore them to shreds before turning around and flying farther to the base.

Nearing the bottom of the incline, I drew my SMG and braced myself for the jump. Jumping off the Nasod surfboard, I spun around in a 360 with both arms extended aiming at the red targets bellow me. "Aerial Bombardment!" Opening fire on them below, the red targets slowly one my one disappeared. As both of my mags. went dry, one last Nasod still was standing. Placing my SMG back in it's holster, I brought down the but stock of my rifle on top of it's head crushing it before kicking it off to the side before running to catch up with Proto and the others.

Everyone was fighting to reach the El and Wally must be desperate because his voice rang out across the area. "Hold them here! Get the El onboard and power up Wally No.8!" The crate containing the El slid up the ramp leading into the ship but the other one stopped its progress and the Nasod started to retreat back into the ship.

"Where are they going?" Chung called out while reloading his cannon.

"I don't know but if I'm correct, then that Wally No. 8 he was talking about is coming." Chi said glancing around. Everyone ran towards the ship and past the crate when some movement from the crate caught my attention. Everyone kept on running and Chi must have noticed it too 'cause she stopped along with me and looked at the crate. Everyone else paused and looked behind them when the box started to shake some and then stopped. Elsword summoned a fire ball in his hand and Chung loaded more rounds into his cannon. Chi twirled her scythe around and fallowed up into an attacking stance and I drew my pistol. Firing a round into the box the shacking started and everyone looked confused. Turning to Proto I shrugged my arms when the box exploded into a dozens of missiles that flew right at us.

"Bullet storm!" Reloading my SMG quickly I brought up both of the weapons and started to send up some flack to destroy the incoming missiles and to by some time for Aisha to conjure up a shield to shield us form the blast. As my mags. ran dry, a purple shield went in front of me as the missiles impacted sending cracks throughout the shield. As the smoke cleared we could make out a huge robotic figure walking out with a single red eye in the center of his head.

"Great another one of those things?" Everyone raised their weapons ready for the attack when energy started to gather around the No. 8's eye.

"Oh no. SCATTER!" Everyone jumped out of the way as the a laser beam sliced through the shield and into the ground behind us.

"If this thing is the same as the other ones, then we can take it out easily!" Elsword charged right in at the No. 8 fallowed by Aisha and Chi. The drone tried to fallow them but I flanked to it's right shooting a few rounds at it's head attracting it's attention towards me to only have multiple cannon rounds impacting it from behind making it fall face first into the ground.

"Jeez this thing is a lot tougher than I thought, though I think this will work. Sword Fire!" Striking his sword into the ground in front of the drone had cause a huge explosion engulfing the robot in flames. It's metal plating started to melt and deform exposing the vulnerable inner workings of the robot.

"Junk Break!" A giant drill was summoned and plunged into the drone and tore up it's insides before having it detonate into a fiery reck. Everyone smiled as they stared on at the smoking wreck of another destroyed mech. when a giant tremor shock us out of the thoughts.

"The aircraft is taking off! Get to it now!" Raven pointed out and we all made a mad dash towards the ship. Elsword, Aisha, and Raven ran up the ramp leading to the ship fallowed closely behind by Chung. Taking the rear I shot at the advancing Nasod giving everyone time to get up onto the ship. Seeing Proto and Eve make it half way up ramp, I turn around and make a run for it. With the sudden shaking created by the ship, the cavern was starting to fall apart with huge boulders falling left and right. One happened to land near the end of the ramp creating a large gap between the end of the ramp and the ship itself.

I ran with all my might and at the last second jumped for the edge of the ship. I reached my hands out to grasp the railing to only come up empty and I hovered there in open air only a few inches away from the rail. I started to fall when multiple arms reached over the edge to grab mine and hauled me over. I lay panting on my back to for a second before propping myself on my arm to see relieved faces but an angry Proto. She walked over to me and slapped me again.

"You nearly got yourself killed again!" I rubbed my face looking up before being knocked down again when she hugged me. "Just don't do anything like that ever again will you?"

Getting up and brushing myself off I look at her and smirked. "I promise I won't do anything like that aga- Ack!" I grabbed my head and staggered to a wall.

"Blaze, what's happening!?" I fell to my knees grabbing my head in pain as the voices from my dream started to talk.

_"The Alpha has boarded the ship with the El inside sir."_

_"That's not good. Send in unit Zeta but tell them to keep some distance until they have to."_ As the voices faded so did the pain. Looking up at everyone I could tell that they where worried about me yet also confused by my sudden actions.

"Blaze what just happened?" I looked up at Rena as she asked and only shook my head.

"I don't know. I just don't know."

"Weird, I was seeing some weird brain waves during that little scene but they seem normal now. How strange."

"Though what exactly did happen there?"

"I'm not sure but it did have to do wi-"

"Intruders detected! Intruders detected!" Turning around I pull my pistol out and shot down the Nasod drone that alerted the whole ship to our presence.

"Ya, can we save the story telling when we are on a ship full Nasodss that want to kills us?"

"Chi's right. Lets go find some where that is preferably not here to hide out." Everyone nodded at that and started to head along the inner works of the ship to stow away in a little storage room.

"So Eve, can you pinpoint exactly where the El is?"

"Kind of, from the scans that I've been getting form this ship, I can't get the exact location of the El because of multiple locations that have these large concentrations of El energy. Though one area could be at the front of the ship."

"Now onto you Blaze, what was that all about earlier?" Everyone was looking at me waiting for an answer and I only sighed chewing on a hard tart before going on with the story.

"From what I can tell, the voices that I've been hearing are the same ones that I've also been hearing in my dreams. Proto knows which ones I'm talking about, but we don't know what they want with the El. All I know is that they have a huge interest with the El and they don't want us to interfere with retrieving it either."

"Though we aren't going to let them have it. We are going to go get that El back, and we are going to get it back to Ruben." Hefting his sword onto his shoulder, Elsword headed off towards the door with everyone in tow. Hurling two fire balls at the door, it easily flew off destroying two unlucky Nasod who were on the opposite side. A Nasod Digger and a few Nasod Bee's down the hall turned towards the smoldering door as Chung summersaulted out of the door and landed in a crouch.

"Heavy Railgun!" Bringing his Destroyer up onto his shoulder, he fired one heavy shot into the Nasod Digger and Bee's destroying them in a plume of blue fire while the rest of us filled out of the room running the opposite direction to the front of the ship. Red lights started to flash and an alarm sounded after the first few shots were fired off in the attack and the Nasod aboard the ship started to swarm us from all directions yet we made short work as we worked our way towards the front of the ship. Battle wave after wave of Nasods, we finally made it to the front to find no El at all but more of a blue metal boxish thing.

"What? The El isn't here? Oh come on it's just a stupid box!" We all where about to head back into the ship to continue our search when Wally's voice came up over the ships intercom.

"Hahahahaha! You fools have fallen into my trap! You all will now parish in with your efforts in vain." Everyone gathered in a defensive circle looking around for the inevitable attack when that blue box started to move and shift.

"You've got to be kidding me, another one of those things!? They are really getting on my nerves Shadow Spike!" Multiple spikes shot out of Chi's shadow to impale themselves in the approaching Mk 9 to have it spark then stop.

"Is that all it got? Pffftt that was easy." As she said that, the Mk 9 powered up again and aimed both of it's arms at us with energy concentrating at the tips of them.

"You just had to say that Chi!" The energy ball was released in our direction knocking all of backwards and myself over the rail. Grabbing the rail with one hand, I swing over open air with open seas far below. Gulping as I looked down at the blue abyss when Proto pocked her head over and reached her hand down to haul me up over the bar. Getting hauled over I came up to see that Elsword, Aisha, Raven, Chi, and Chung went in to assault the Mk 9 circling around to give it multiple targets. Eve and Rena went for the high ground with Proto and I in tow. Pulling out my sniper rifle I start to fire away at the Mk 9. Rena also started launch arrows at it while Eve and Proto circled around to give the other some cover but my bullets and Rena's arrows only bounced right off the thick armor plating.

"God, how thick is that things armor!?" Elsword yelled before jumping back to avoid a punch. "My sword isn't doing anything but scratching the surface of it!"  
"We aren't doing o hot either." Raven and Chi yelled ducking under it's arm to slice at it's middle section.

'It's armor is to thick, what should we do?' Thinking I finally swiped my hand infront of me to bring up the thermal vision and I examined the bot as they battled. Looking on, I could see that there where multiple spots around the joints connecting the head to the body, the arm sockets, and the arms pivot points that are bright with red. I took aim at on in the shoulder hot spots and fired to bring up results. As the bullet impacted I could see that the bullet had done some damage because smoke started to rise form the hole.

"Everyone start going after the points that I will shoot at." Racking the bolt of my rifle, I start shooting spot after spot marking the areas to attack and the Mk 9 started to fall. The Nasod was now smoking from multiple spots around it's arms and fire started to break out on one of his arms. Chung fired a cannon round at it's head to crack its visor before I delivered the final blow.

"Charge Shot!" The bullet arced across the battlefield into the head of the Mk 9 to have it explode in a burst of flames, Everyone started to cheer as the bot started to explode and vanish into a plume of smoke when I started to notice something in the smoke. At first it was distorted from all of the flames, but as the flames cooled down I could see a faint outline of what looked like a humanoid figure with duel blades.

"Everyone watch out!" I pulled up my rifle and shot at the figure just as it jumped through the flames at Chi. With smoke trailing behind it, it started to fall down towards Chi blades at the ready.

"Look out!" Chung threw himself between Chi with his cannon up in a guard. His cannon and the figures blades connected sending Chi and Chung flying into a wall behind them. Everyone turned to confront the new threat and Eve and Proto only stared with disbelief.

"How does Wally have a Nasod Bladder!?"

"Well Bladder, or not, it will have to be destroyed." Everyone got ready for the inevitable assault. But it did nothing but stood there blades at the ready scanning us all when it lunged at as. Elsword threw a fire ball at it fallowed by a slash but the Nasod jumped over the fire ball then dodged under the slash to deliver a punch into his gut to then throw him into Raven and Rena to continue on. Chi and Chung where still getting up and where dazed form the first attack so Proto and Eve confronted him. It ran past Eve and Proto and then at me. I fired at him with my assault rifle and it knocked it away before tackling me.

"Blaze!" I lay on the ground with the Nasod on top of me with it's blade raised to strike down on me when it all of a suddenly froze. Taking advantage, I pull out my SMG and unloaded the full magazine into it's head before punching it off of me. Everyone came rushing over to me with worried looks.

"Ok this is one weird day. First you have that weird telekinesis moment and now this Nasod hesitates to kill you. This is a weird day."

"Well the El is still in this ship lets go under the deck to find it." Elsword started for the door and I picked up my rifle before heading in with Proto close behind.

_'Could that have been Unit Zeta?'_ We went through corridor to corridor fighting the Nasods and making our way to the second location that could be the El when an explosion rattled the ship sending everyone sprawling for support or falling down.

"The hell was that!?" Pulling myself to a window I look outside to see a second ship along the one that we where on. I could see multiple hatches on the sides start to open up and light up in as the cannons fired and one was pointed at us.

"Move move move!" I yelled. Everyone got up and started to run and at good timing because a cannon round ripped a hole in the corridor that we where just in. Looking over at Raven, I could see that something was bothering him.

"Raven, something up?"

"No, no it can't be."

"It can't be what?"

"That ship, it's the Black Crow. The ship that I was the captain of before joining the El Search Party."

"What are they doing here?"

"I don't know."

"Well standing here isn't going to solve anything. Lets keep going and find that El before this ship is destroyed." Nodding we all made our way through the corridors until we came up to the cargo bay and sitting in the middle of it all is the case that held the El. Making our way to it we all thought that the adventure for the El was over when the roof above us was torn free to have multiple cables shoot down securing the case and started to life it up into Black Crow.

"Everyone grab a cable and hang on for your dear life!" Grabbing onto a nearby cable, we all where hoisted into the air to see the full extent of the Wally's damaged ship. We could see that it had suffered severe damage and was burning out of control as it plummeted into the sea bellow before exploding.

"So much for our ride home." Looking at the others I sighed knowing that this will be a lot longer than we all thought it would have been. I looked up as wen entered the ships haul and we all dashed off into the darkness undetected.

"So what now? Our original plan is now sinking under the waves, what do we do now?" Everyone looked at Elsword waiting for the new one and we could tell that he was deep in thought.

"Well that is easy, it's still the original plan, it's just going to be a different ship."


	9. Chapter 9

**Anon: YES ANOTHER CHAPTER DONE!  
**

**Elsword: Wow, I'm impressed Anon, 5,500 words are in this chapter.  
**

**Anon: Wow, Elsword is saying something nice...  
**

**Elsword: Then again I bet that it's 5,500 words of a crappy chapter.  
**

**Anon: Aaahhh there's the Elbaka we know :3  
**

**Elsword: DOES NO ONE USE MY REAL NAME!?  
**

**Eve and Proto: May we?  
**

**Anon: Go ahead.  
**

**Elsword: Ep! *Runs away*  
**

**Eve and Proto: *Fallowing close behind with chains and a machine gun*  
**

**Well enough talking onto the chapter!  
**

* * *

_**Blaze's POV:**_

"So your plan is to try to commandeer a ship full of trained mercenaries that just blasted out original plan to pieces."

"So you're in?"

"Hell yes I'm in. I also guess that everyone else is in as well?" I turn to the others and got nods in return. "Raven, you would know this ship better than we would. Do you know the way to the bridge?"

"I do. This won't be an easy run. If these Black Crows are as tough when I was leading them, then they will present a challenge."

"So when do we move out?" Chung loaded his cannon and pulled out his Silver Shooter ready.

"Well, we will be discovered eventually so lets go while we still have the element of surprise."

"Speaking of which, we got 4 hostiles coming down the hall in our direction." Elsword, Raven, Chung, and I braced ourselves around the door and I switched over to my thermals to see four Black Crows walk next to our door. Opening the door we rushed out knocking the four out and dragging them back into the storage room leaving no trace behind.

"Hmm... I have an idea." Looking over at Raven, Elsword, and Chung.

"What do you have planed?" The three of them eyed me curiously as a mischievous smile formed on my face.

"I have a feeling I know how we can get through the security got two Black Crow Snipers and two Gladiators."

"What are you getting at?"

"Put on their clothes and they can't tell the difference because of those gas masks they wear. Though Chung, you will have to relinquish your armor and Destroyer for the disguise to work. But you can keep your Silver Shooter."

He looked at me sadly to then look down at his armor and Destroyer. Sighing he set his Destroyer aside and his armor started to break into smaller pieces that folded back in on itself freeing his body from it. Opening a panel he pressed some more buttons and it started to fold in on itself even more to come up in a tight compact rectangle box. Doing the same with his Destroyer, it turned into a tight tube with a strap to hang it over the carriers the Gladiator and sniper clothing and hear, we all placed the gas masks over our head and my monocle just made the fit.

"Now Rena and Aisha, I will need to hand cuff you and take away your bow, sword, and wand." Aisha was about to protest but stopped seeing our reasoning. Rena unbuckled Erendil and her bow giving it to Raven while Aisha handed her wand over to Elsword.

"I just hope you know what you are doing. I don't like to be caught in the middle of a fight unarmed." Turning her back to as along with Aisha, we handcuffed them loosely so they looked like they were under our control.

"Now what about Eve, Proto, and myself and all this equipment?" Smirking under the mask as I turned over to survey the pile to see my assault, sniper rifle, and bandolier along with Elsword's and Raven's swords on top of Chung's armor case and Destroyer.

"That's where you three come in. You don't mind fallowing us stealthily behind us with our gear right?" Chi looked at the gear sighing but went over to strap Chung's Freiturnier armor case on to her back like a backpack and slung the compact Destroyer over the armor case and grunted.

"Man even though both of them may have shrunk in size, they're both still heavy as hell! How the hell do you carry this heavy cannon and armor around everywhere with little effort?"

"What can I say, I'm a lot stronger then I appear." He flexed one of his arms jokingly.

"I've always had an interest with Blaze's weapons." Proto picked up my 416 rifle out of its case and held it experimentally before grabbing the grip and looked down the sights. "Can I use this Blaze? Pretty please~?" She looked at me with puppy eyes and I waved my had at her.

"Fine, fine, fine. Just don't shoot when there isn't a threat and so our cover won't be blown." She strapped on the bandolier rightly with a click along with my M24. "Just stay back and try not to be spotted but be close enough that you can provide support when needed."

"Enough standing around and lets go!" Elsword and I stood in the front of Rena and Aisha with Chung and Raven pulling up the rear. We exited the room and started to walk towards the bridged when a passing Black Crow Commander stopped is.

"Hold up, now what do we have here?" Stepping forward I explained the situation.

"Two stow aways. Believed to have been on that other ship that we blew up."

"Stow aways eh? Well, where are you taking them to? 'Cause I wouldn't mind taking one of them off of your back." His eyes lingered over Rena and Aisha but reverted back over to Rena's chest. I turn towards them and I could see that Rena back stepped back a bit as the Commanders face got closer to hers. I could see that the rage was building up inside of her along with Raven struggling from punching him square in the face.

"That won't be necessary Commander. We can handle these two in the distance from the bridge."

"All right then. Though I can't even take the flat chested one either?" The rage flamed up in Aisha's eyes at that comment and it took all of her will power to not punch him in the face.

"No sir, not even her."

"Well you better start heading off towards the bridge. Heck maybe you'll get something special for finding these two lovelies here." He leered at Rena again before disappearing down into the hallway. Raven and Elsword looked worriedly at Rena and Aisha who had there fists clenched and head down.

"Rena, Aisha. You both Ok?

"He tried to have me to use my body..."

"He called me flat chested..."

"Ok, I know that you have all that rage, but do you think you can keep it in for just a few more minutes? I have a bad feeling that this will end in a fight."

"Sure thing... I will slaughter them all..." Rena and Aisha looked up sadistically which made me physically sweat drop behind my mask. We walked on towards the bridge and passed by multiple Black Crow troopers that looked at us before going back to their work. Everything was going smoothly under the ship and we were nearing our objective. Walking up the stairs onto the main deck just bellow the bridge. Inside we could make out a figure with spiky hair through the orange tinted glass looking over some controls before turning and looked down onto us. We walked when a guard stopped us from going any farther on the deck.

"Halt. State your business for going up into the bridge to see the captain."

"Stow aways sir. We're bringing them to the bridge for him to decide their fa-" I was cut off with a screech of a microphone. Looking up at the figure I could see him with a microphone in his hand.

"Intruders alert! Those aren't part of our ranks and they are with these so called stow aways. Eliminate them at once!" With a click he hung up and the guard aimed his gun at me only to have his lights punched out. Chung and I started for open fire around as Elsword and Raven get the girls untied and rearmed.

"Oh don't steal all the fun!" I ducked behind a box as enemy fire flew over my head and Chung did the same. Proto slide over to the box on my left and lifted the assault rifle over to fire a few bursts at the enemy. Ditching Black Crow's sniper rifle, I pull out my pistol and SMG. Chi then appeared at the edge of the stairs and signaled for Chung to come over there. Proto and I under stood that and stood up firing away making the enemy dive for cover as a hail of bullets whizzed over in their direction. Reloading both of my guns and removing the gas mask, I ducked back into cover as bullet impacted the box when multiple missiles started to shoot from the stairs entrance fallowed by Chung and the others. Sliding over to Proto's cover as she dragged a new mag into the gun.

"Having fun with my toy?" I smiled her as she hit the bolt release loading a new round in the chamber with a click.

"More than you think!" Popping up over the cover she started to unload the mag into the approaching enemy before ducking down. "Why, are you taking it away from me?" She gave me a sad face with puppy eyes and that made me crack a grin.

"Sorry, but I will have to take back." She sighed as she handed over the weapon and the bandolier. "I was also thinking of you taking that sniper rifle and go up there to provide some fire support." Pointing up to a well elevated area, I hand her multiple magazines for the sniper rifle. She pulled it out and folded the bi-pods legs and pulled the bolt back slightly to see a bullet was chambered.

"Give me some cover fire will you." She bolted out of cover hurling multiple Nasod spears at the enemy and continued to run. I popped up witching to semiautomatic and started to fire down range. Moving around the box I started to charge into the fray. Smashing the but stock of my rifle into a charging Gladiator when Raven's mask was knocked off by a lucky blow from an Engineer. All the Black Crows stopped fighting and looked towards him as he stood back up ripping off the sleeve on his left arm to free up his Nasod arm.

"What!? Why is our captain fighting with the enemy!?" Mass confusion started to spread the the sound of shattering glass pierced through all the commotion and the figure from the bridge descended to meet us. Everyone looked at him to find that it was another Raven.

"What are you fools doing just standing around!? Fight the invaders!" He pointed his sword at us but they all hesitated.

"Sir, how can there be two of you? Who the is the real captain, the one that is attacking us or the one in uniform?"

"Pfft. He's nothing but a replica of myself. Created to manipulate your actions and the ship as well." The other Raven just laughed at pointed his sword at him.

"If you think that you are the real Raven, then lets prove it in battle. Just you and me." They both raised their swords and charged each other. Their swords clashed and sparks went flying when they struck each other. the real Raven was easily dodging the stabs and strikes that the other one struck at him and countered with a barrage of his own. The other Raven jumped back and raised his Nasod hand and aimed it at the other charging Raven.

"Maximum Cannon!" Fire spewed out of the palm aimed at the other Raven. The real Raven saw the attack coming and jumped up over him and twisted his body in mid air so that he was facing his rear.

"Shockwave!" He slashed his sword down as the fake Raven started to turn around and met the attack head on. He vanished form sight in a plume of smoke. Everyone stared in awe as they knew they've been tricked and went ahead to get orders from their true leader. Everyone was concentrating on the duel that they hadn't notice the floating island that the ship was now over a giant floating island.

"Guys?" I looked over the rail in awe and tried to get the others attention.

"Wow Raven, you manage to beat yourself in a battle." Rena wrapped her arms around his Nasod arm as he scratched his head with the other.

"Guys!?"

"Ah thanks. It was nothing really."

"GUYS!"

"What is it Blaze!?" Rena turned to me very annoyed. I flinched a bit but composed my self with a wave over to the side of the rail. Everyone came over and Chung shouted in awe as they saw the giant floating island we were above. Eve and Proto just stared ahead transfixed having memories come back to them.

"Eve, Proto. You know this place don't you." They both nodded there head in reply then looked back out.

"Below us is the island of Altera. My, what you humans say, birth place along with Proto's. This used to be the place hat housed the Nasod Kingdom before the war and my species inevitable extinction." Some movement in the smoke where the fake Raven was caught my eye and I pulled out my pistol and started to tread towards the hole to have a robotic hand reach over the side. The Nasod Raven pulled itself out of the small hole missing a lot of his 'skin' and reviled the robotic frame underneath.

"Y-y-y-you hav-v-v-vn't w-w-w-won this yet h-hu-hu-mans. You f-f-fail-le-le-led." I aimed my gun at it and pulled the trigger adding a new hole in it's head. Sparks jolted out of the hole and and then the body doubled over and exploded. In the explosion, I nearly missed the sound of heavy cargo bay door opening and then the whoosh as a heavy object fell from it. I rushed over to the railing to see the metal El case disappear into the green vegetation far below us.

"Damn it! We had the El crystal in our grasp and we let it slip through our fingers!" Elsword slammed his hand down onto the railing in anger. Raven took his cue and stepped in and ordered the Black Crows around.

"All right men prepare the ship to land on that island. Once we disembark, take off and fly a safe distance from here. We will call when we will need a pick up." They all nodded and started to rush around. Proto returned my sniper rifle to me and I placed it back in my holster as we started our decent onto unexplored territory. We all headed into the cargo bay just as the ship was about to hit disembarking hight. The bay doors opened up and a gust of wind blew into the open hatch. Ropes were lowered down to ground level and I grabbed one and slid down it. Hitting the ground below, I go into a crouch and pulled my 416 out and started to scan the area around us. Proto floated down to the side of me as Chung hit the ground and pulled out his pistol. Slowly a defensive circle was formed as each of us hit the ground. Once everyone was on the ground, I twirled my finger around in a circle above my head signaling for them to retract the rope and headed off in the distance.

Getting up from my crouch position, I lowered my rifle down into a ready position as we all treaded into an open area. A bush started to rustle to our right and I snapped to it bringing my sighs up at what could be a potential threat. Everyone saw my movements and get into an attack stance ready for what ever caused the disturbance. I moved closer to it to hear something or someone whimper in fear. I lowered my weapon and let it be suspended my its shoulder strap. I moved closer to the bush and moved the branches out of the way to see this furry creature blocking his face with both of his arms.

"Ah! Don't harm me!" He swung his arms in front of him to stop and look back up at me. "You're not going to strike me down?"

"Why would I?" It sighed in relief and I waved for the others to come over as well.

"What the heck is that fur ball!?" Elsword pointed at the creature to only have his stomach growl. "Is it eatable?"

Aisha slapped Elsword for such a stupid question causing to do a face plant into the ground. Chung and I chuckled slightly at that and Rena just walked up to it with one of her happy smiles.

"Oh isn't this creature so kawaii~!"

"Though still, what are you exactly?"

"I'm a Ponggo that lives here on Altera. I came to the surface to explore when I saw that ship descend from the sky and drop you off. I thought that you where a threat so I hid an- OH MY GOD LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU!" He jumped back into the bush as Eve and Proto came along to see this new creature. I looked to see a confused look on both Proto's and Eve's face.

"Did we do something to scare him off?" I turned back around to see that the Ponggo was peaking out of the bush and came back out.

"How are you still alive? There's two Nasod behind you yet you still live. These two must be different." He walked around me and walked up to Eve and Proto and studied them both. Moby and Reby seemed curios about the furry little creature and floated down to eye level. They both bobbed up and down as they looked at the Ponggo who looked scared and reached his shacking hand towards the two drones. Patting the top part of Reby had caused it to fly into the scared Ponggo and started to rub it's head on him and Eve only laughed and Elsword's stomach growled.

The Ponggo must have heard it because it invited us back its village and to its village chief Adel. He lead us through the forest for some time until we came up to this hole in the ground. Crawling for some time in what seemed to be complete darkness, if it wasn't for my night vision mode, when a small light started to shine at the end of the tunnel into a vast area. We all stare as Ponggo's hustle and bustle around when they spotted us. They all stopped what ever they were doing to look at the new comers and started to panic when they saw Eve and Proto.

"Nasods! Everyone run for your lives!" Eve looked confused and Proto had kept a poker face on while the rest of us went out to help calm down everyone. The panic was soon quelled when we were approached by an elderly looking Ponggo.

"Why hello there. My name is Adel, the chief of this village. So this is the group of people that were dropped off by that ship correct?" I nodded and introduced everyone else.

"Nice to meet you Adel. My name is Blaze, the red head is Elsword, black haired one is Raven, green is Rena, orange is Chi, blond one is Chung, purple is Aisha, and the two white haired ones are Eve and Proto...Wait, where's Proto?" Everyone looked to where Proto was to find it empty. "Well, where ever she is, she looks like Eve here."

"You eight of you look you've been through a lot. Do you need a place to stay? We've got a house open that can fit all eight can stay. Please fallow." He started to walk in a certain direction and we fallowed. We all looked around in awe at the carved out village bellow the islands surface when a question hit me.

"Hey Adel, I've got a question."

"Ask away."

"Why was everyone started to panic when they saw a Nasod?" He stopped and turned to me.

"You don't know?" I shook my head in reply.

"Know what exactly? I'm also curious at the Ponggo's reactions to myself." Eve walked up to my side.

"The Nasod have been attacking us for sometime and I was hoping that you would help us in defeat the Nasod or make it so that their no longer a threat to us."

"We will help you defeat the Nasods. I never meant my race to be a threat or a danger for others." We reached the house soon after and it was a nice big two story house. Thanking Adel, we dropped off our gear before gathering at the table to discus where the El could be on this place.

"From the data that I have now, I am guessing that the El would be somewhere around here." She tapped something on her holo screen causing it to spin around enlarging it before flattening itself on the table in front of us. A red dot started to pulse on the map which we could only guess was where the El might be. "The maps that I have acquired says that this area is known as the 'Return Plains.'"

"Any idea what to expect there?"

"Judging from what we heard form the Ponggo's, be expecting some Nasods to be in the area."

"Great we're fighting Clankers again..." I sighed and leaned my hand against my face.

"You have a problem fighting them?"

"No, not at all. I just hope it's something more challenging than those Wally bots." I got up and left the table going up to my room to check on my gear. I dismantled my assault rifle giving it a thorough cleaning, re-oiled it before doing the same with my other weapons. Placing them all back into their holsters, that where hanging from some pegs in the wall, I grabbed my bandolier inspecting for tears before extracting all the separate magazines. Loading some new rounds and replacing some El shards in them, I placed them back in securely before hanging it back on the wall peg. Sighing I walk over to my bed and fell into it.

_'Why am I having this weird feeling that something bad is going to happen in the future?'_I placed my arm over my eye and drifted off into a light nap when a knock at my door woke me up. Siting up to see Proto at the door I knew already what was going on.

"Get ready, we're heading out now." She smiled at me before leaving. Getting out I grabbed my gear and went down stairs, met up with everyone, and left the house. I stood guard as the other crawled out of the hole. I scoped out the area in front of us with my sniper rifle when something shiny caught my attention. I zoomed into the bush that had I had saw the glint of light, making out a shadowed form that was looking right at us. I kept my aim at the bush when a single green light lit up and started to running.

"Oh no you don't." I fired my weapon and I could see my bullet arc across the field before hitting what ever was spying on us. The bullet struck the target causing it to stumble on itself before halting on the ground. I lowered the M24, extracting the spent cartridge, before pushing it forward loading a new round in the chamber.

"The hell you firing at?" Sliding the sniper rifle back into my holster, I pulled out my pistol and started to walk towards what ever it was.

"Something that was spying on us." Chi only scoffed at that.

"I bet it was nothing. What if it was something that was just curious about us?" I only shook my head when we reached the culprit.

"That's a Nasod Scout. What are one of those doing here?"

"Well, what ever it was doing here it's not doing anymore." I walk over to it and crouched down to examine it when its' green eye started to glow again. It jumped up on its legs and looked at me. I cocked my head off to the side before it shocked and started to run away. Chi laughed at me while Rena shot an arrow into it causing it to explode. I shook my head when some heavy foot steps caught our attention. A Nasod Minder charged out through the woods with its drill swinging down towards me. I back flipped as everyone jumped away from the attack and I fired multiple rounds into it. Landing I brought my assault rifle up ready for any other attacks that where hidden.

We all cautiously approached the now destroyed Driller. Examining it for a brief second, you could clearly see that it was covered in this weird green substance. We all started to run across the vast plains towards where Eve had predicted when more Nasods started to come out and attack us. Every one of them had the same weird green substance as the first one. We kept on fighting our way towards the marked location and the closer we got, the heavier the resistance got. One of those infected Nasod pounced knocking me onto my back. It raised its drill into the air when multiple spears punctured through its side throwing it off of me and destroying it. got up off the ground and smiled at Proto. She only glared and I returned that glare with a role from my eye and a small grin.

She glided on ahead to join the others when I notice that I got some of that green stuff on my arm. Wiping it off I continued but something didn't feel right about this stuff. Everyone was wondering if this green stuff was a problem and didn't think of it as such until I started to cough up some blood.

I started to have a small cough after that Nasod had touched me. I coughed into my hand to only come up with blood on it. Proto turned towards me to ask something when she noticed my hand.

"Blaze, what happened?"

"It's nothing to worry Proto, I'm fine." I coughed some more spitting out some blood to the side.

"No, you're not Blaze. You're coughing up blood for peat sakes!" Everyone now turned around and rushed back to the two of us with concern creasing their faces.

"Something up with Blaze?"

"It's nothing, I'm fine guys." That only made Proto madder at me.

"Fine!? Blaze, your coughing up blood! When did this start happening?"

"I only started to get this cough after that infected Nasod jumped me and made contact." Proto walked up to me and placed her hand on my forehead to retract it quickly.

"Come on man, you're burning up!"

"Seriously Blaze, I don't think you're all right." I coughed up some more blood and fell onto one of me knees when a wave of nausea came over to me as my vision blurred.

"Blaze!" Their voices seemed distant as my vision blurred before toppling to the side and passed out.

* * *

_**Proto's POV:**_

"Blaze!" I shouted as I went to his side. I could see his chest rise still but his breaths were labored and shallow. "We have to get him back to the Ponggo village now. Rena, do you have anything that can help him for the journey back?" I turned to Rena and she only shook her head.

"I'm sorry Proto but I have never seen anything like this before but I think this might help." She took out a syringe along with a file containing this blue liquid substance inside of it. Sticking the needle in int he bottle, she drew some of it into it before turning to Blaze. Sticking the needle into his arm, she pressed down injecting the liquid into his veins. His body stiffened some before relaxing and his breathing started to return to normal.

Sighing with relief I got up when movement on my scanners caught my attention. Sliding his assault rifle out of his holster along with his bandolier. 'I swear that I'm going to ask him to build me one of these things. There just so fun to use~!' I switched the gun off from safety to full auto and started to look around. Everyone formed a defensive circle around Blaze's unconscious body waiting for the inevitable attacker. I could hear a rumbling sound come closer to us. I held the gun tighter as a red dot appeared on my sensors barreling right towards us. A Nasod Driller came bursting through this debris that had once lead to a dead end. We could easily see that it was covered in that infectious green thing. It revved its drill at us and started to charge us. We all scattered giving it multiple targets to give chase too. I ran to the left and it fallowed me to have a few of Elsword's' fireballs strike him. Turning to attack him to then get attacked by Chung. It turned towards his attacked when I noticed one of his treads was damage and that gave me an idea. I found Eve and told her the plan I had came up with. A smile grew on her face as I finished before rushing off to tell the others.

"You sure you this will work?" I only smiled at Chi which confused her before heading off strafing the Driller. The bullets plinked against the back of the bots head making it whirl around furiously and revved its drill. I ran down to where Eve was standing waiting for the time to strike and I took my time aiming at the Driller that was charging at me. I pulled the trigger sending multiple rounds in the already damage tread causing it to fall apart. Without the traction of that tread, it turned broad side to me and slide for a few seconds before going air born. I smirked and signaled Eve who returned with a nod and a grin on her face.

"Junk Break!" We both yelled in unison as two drills came out creating a spiked spinning wall of destruction that the Driller was flying right towards. It flew straight into the two drills that left only a scrap pile once it was done. I smiled as I saw the pile of green metal and next to it was a giant rectangular shaped crater, which would only be where the El case had landed when I remembered about Blaze. We both ran back to the others who were working around him creating a makeshift stretcher. Using Moby and Reby to help carry Blaze around we set off back to the Ponggo village. Climbing through the hole in the ground, we finally made it back to the village. Spotting Adel in the distance we ran over to him and he greeted us with a smile.

"You're back!" He said as we neared him but his smiled turned to a frown when he saw Blaze. "What happened to your friend there?"

"I don't know completely, but he apparently touched this green material and now he's like this." He walked closer to me examining my clothes.

"Now what are these little things?" He picked at this green substance that was on my clothes. He seemed to be in deep thought when he looked up to see another Ponggo walking by. "Aaahhh Amos! I was just about to get you."

"You need anything chief?"

"Yes, can you please examine this strange thing that has been found on these young warriors? One of their lives depends on it."

"I'm on it." The Ponggo that was called Amos left in a hurry and we trailed behind him back to his alchemy shop. I took a peak down at Blaze when I noticed that his usual tanned skin was now a pale color and sweat beads are forming on his forehead.

"Please hang on." I said under my breath. At that Amos burst out of the shop carrying a syringe full of this red liquid. Poking it into his arm, he emptied the contents before going stepping back with a sigh of relief.

"Your friend is a lucky one. If you hand't brought him back at the time you did, he wouldn't have made it." I look down to see that some color was starting to return. Placing my hand on his head, I could also feel that he had cooled down sufficiently and that his fever had broke.

"Though what exactly did you find?"

"That's the troubling part. The green stuff that was on those Nasods you fought today are covered in this Alterasia Plant spore parasites."

"How is that weird?"

"It's weird because the only place that has been spawning these types of spores are from the Transporting Tunnel B4-1."

* * *

**Anon: :3  
**

**Blaze: ...  
**

**Anon: What?  
**

**Blaze: ...  
**

**Eve: Anon, I think he's mad that you made you pass out near the end.  
**

**Blaze: *Nodes*  
**

**Anon: Aw I'm sorry, here have an Oreo.  
**

**Blaze: OOHHH OREO! *noshes down on the Oreo***

**Everyone but Blaze and Anon: Where's our Oreo!?  
**

**Anon: Don't bee greedy, Blaze got injured.  
**

**Blaze: Yeah!  
**

**Everyone but Blaze and Anon: *Whines*  
**

**Anon: FINE FINE FINE! HERE TAKE THEM! *Gives them all one*  
**

**Everyone: YAY!  
**

**Review and you will get an Oreo as well ;D Until next time! Later~  
**


	10. Chapter 10

**Anon: Sorry for the long wait!**

**Everyone: What took you so long!?**

**Anon: Somethings at home and again writers block =.= you gotta hate it**

**Elsword: Well at least you made it a longer one.**

**Anon: The writers block was trying to write some romance on Chi's request, I hope you like it XD**

**Well off you go reading the chapter.**

* * *

_**Chung's POV:**_

"So where exactly is the Transporting Tunnel B4-1? Can we access it?" Adel only scratched his ear as he went into thought.

"From what I can remember, the Transporting Tunnel B4-1 was constructed when we were expanding our mines. Though in doing so must have brought us close to something that they didn't want us to discover. We were mining there when one day they attacked, forcing us to retreat and seal off the tunnel's entrance. The Nasod had taken over the mining tunnel for some time until the Alterasia plant spores came along and didn't do anything at first, but then they started t spread and infect the Nasod that were in the cave. It's a troubling sign that the Alterasia spores are found on the surface."

"Why's that?"

"It's a problem because it means that the spores are spreading. As you've seen what has happened with your friend here, you can see why this is bad." I sighed and glanced down at Blaze before back at Adel.

"So is there anything you have that can help us against that Alterasia spore?" The Ponggo that was named Amos then came back out of his shop with an empty jar and some fairly large tweezers.

"I'm working on a potion that will cause you to be immune to the spores but I will need more of them to develop it completely. You people mind staying around for some time so I can get enough samples?" Proto the floated over to Amos and disappeared before dematerializing with out a speck of the spores on her and where she used to be was a small pile of the green spore.

"Well, that clears me and I think Blaze is cleared too of any of the spores. I'll bring him back to the house. Have fun you guys." She waved before floating off towards to our home here on Altera.

"Lucky, she gets to go home while we stay here and wait to be picked for the spores." I sighed and stepped forward setting my Destroyer down and then pulling my Silver Shooter out for it and Amos began picking away._ 'This is going to be a long day.'_

* * *

_**Proto's POV:**_

I reached the door to our house fallowed Moby and Reby who were still caring Blaze on the makeshift stretcher. Opening the door, I ushered both of the two bots inside before heading in myself and fallowed them both upstairs into Blaze's room. Removing all the gear all of his gear and setting them against the wall, I tuck him in under the sheets. I sat at the front of the bed looking at the sleeping face of his and smiled. I patted the two drones who flew in a circle of joy before I said for them to return to Eve. They both started to play with each other before Moby zipped out of the window with Reby close behind.

_'He looks so peaceful when he sleeps,'_ I thought. _'He is usually so serious when we are out in the field and sometimes when we are back in a safe area.'_ I reach my hand down brushing some of his hair away from his face. He rolled over, turning his body away from me and batted at my hand playfully making me smile. He then turned back over to face me with his eyes opened and a grin spread across his face.

"You're awake, how are you feeling?" I look on into his red eyes seeing the all present flame imprint in them.

"I feel like bad, but not as bad as I felt out there. What happened exactly?"

"That green stuff on those Nasods, it's a spore called Alterasia. When that one Nasod got on top of you, you must have inhaled enough spores to put you in that condition."

"Did everyone else get hurt from them? Where is everyone?"

"Everyone else is fine and right now there over at Amos, the villages alchemist, shop getting picked dry of those spores. He's also working on a formula to counter the Alterasia poisonous properties." He rolled over onto his back with a sigh-of-relief and closed his eyes for a second before reopening them half lidded and a frown on his face.

"Something wrong Blaze?"

"I don't know what or why, but there's something about Altera just doesn't sit well with me. There's something about this place that just doesn't seem right." He tried to stifle a yawn, but a small one escaped and I smiled at him.

"Well, don't beat yourself over the head thinking about that. Go on and get some rest, we will have a busy day tomorrow." I leaned down and planted a kiss before leaving his room with a smile.

_'So, Nasods aren't supposed to have emotions? Well, I wouldn't know where I would be if I didn't have any of them at all.'_ I placed my hand over my mouth and giggled at that thought before going back to Eve's mind to sleep.

* * *

_**Chung's POV:**_

"Ok Chi, you're clean too. Elsword, you're next." I could see her grumble something un audible as she picked up Zentai. I stood by the door watching the group and fallowed her out.

"Hey Chi! Wait up would you!" She turned and looked at me with her one violet eye that had a slight look of annoyance.

"What do you want?"

"I was wondering if you would want to...to take a walk and explore this place with me." She cocked her head off to the side giving a light smile

"Sure, I guess so. We all could use the break right about now."

"You said it. Going from the Mines, to aboard Wally's ship, to the Black Crow, and finally to the Return Plains. I'm surprised that we been through so much in one day and we suffered minimal damage." We were walking through the middle of the village and watched as the Ponggo's bustle about getting their everyday needs. It saddened me to watch them because it reminds me of the bustling streets in Hamel before the demon attack and before my father had...had lost control.

"Chung is something wrong? You look extremely depressed." She must have saw the sad look that I gave the Ponggo's and I only shook my head.

"It's nothing Chi. Just some old memories that are resurfacing." We turned around and started to head back to our house.

"What are they exactly?"

"Some that are before we met up and before the El went missing or when I had met Elsword and the others."

"What happened?"

"Well, lets start off with where I am from. My home town is Hamel in located in the southern Elrios Continent of Pluone. It was a beautiful place then and it was full of life. I was their Prince and fallowed under the watch of my father who was known as 'Hamel's White Colossus' and I the 'White Wolf of Hamel.' It was peaceful back then and I was still in training. Everything was so nice back then and I only wish that today was like that back then."

We both reached the front door and entered the house to see Rena curled up against Raven and rested her head on his shoulder. He only turned his head slightly towards us and put his finger to his lips before pointing down at her. Nodding in reply, we slipped past the two and glided up the stairs when I noticed something in Elsword's room. Taking a step back, I peaked through the little crack in the door to see Eve sleeping with her head on Elsword's chest. I cracked a grin and looked up to see Chi standing there with her hands on her hips waiting for me impatiently. I opened the door to my room and we both entered. I hung up my Silver Shooter holster on one of the wall pegs and went over to where my Destroyer was leaning up against and spread my feet about shoulder width apart. Tapping a few things buttons on my gauntlet, I spread my arms out as my armor starts to unfold at my arms and work it's way down to my feet. Finally completely free from the suit, I step out of it rolling both of my shoulders before heading over to my bed where Chi was sitting. Sitting next to her I continued with the story.

"Then it happened. The demons attacked and my father went out to defend our home. He went out to defend our home yet I had to stay back to complete my training. Though through every battle that he had fought had also taken a tole on him for he was slowly getting corrupted until the one day that he had finally snapped. I knew that confronting my father was the only option I had to try to snap him out of it. I hadn't completed my training and I knew that even if I did, I would still be out of my league but I had to try. I tried to reason with him but he was to far gone. Injured badly I was tossed out to sea and went on to drift aimlessly through the sea unconscious until I ended up on a beach not that far from where Elsword's hometown, Ruben, was located. Apparently, from what he told me, he saw something shinny in the sea that was coming towards the beach and he went down to investigate. I washed up onto the shore just when Elsword had managed to make it down to the shore when Aisha came along too wondering what was that white figure that came from the sea. They got me kind of far into the woods before I started to have these convulsions when Rena came along and stabilized my condition. Little did we know that we were going to band together to find the lost El."

I looked down to see Chi had fallen asleep leaning on my arm and I was to tiered to move her to her room, so I let her stay there and lay down on my bed before drifting off into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

_**Blaze's POV:**_

'So, another day begins in search of the lost El.' I stared up at the ceiling before rolling out of my bed. I stretched my arms out as I walked over to me weapons to do a quick inspection. Finishing that, I strap on my pistols leg holster before heading out of my room to venturing downstairs. Reaching the bottom of them, I could see both Rena and Raven passed out on the couch and I tiptoed passed them out the front door. I took in a deep breath of the warm moist underground air before heading out towards the market area. Reaching it and picking out what was going to be our breakfast I ran into Adel.

"Oh it's you. It's good to see that you're up and about. Matter of fact, I was going to go find a member of your group to tell you that the entrance to the transporting tunnel is now clear and you can pick up the potion to counteract the Alterasia spores. Please, when you go down there, eliminate any Alterasia plant you see. We don't want to have it spread any further than it has." I thanked him for the info before heading back to the house to prepare todays meal. Raven and Rena were starting to wake up as I opened the door and entered the kitchen to start cooking. Turning the stove on, I start to make some omelets. The eggs sizzled as I folded the omelet over on top of the grated cheese. Sliding the finished omelets onto the separate plates, I brought them over to the hungry crowd that waited at the table. I passed out the plates to everyone and they dug right in. Siting down at me seat, I started to eat my food and waited for everyone to get about half way done before telling the mission details.

"So are we going to go down into the transporting tunnels?" Elsword said through a mouth full of food.

Nodding I replied, "We are. They just cleared an entrance today. Also Amos had also completed the development the potion to counteract the effects of the Alterasia spores effect. After gearing up, we'll head over to Amos's place to pick up the potion and then move onto the tunnel." Nods were given in return and we all finished our meal before gearing up and heading off on our mission.

* * *

Entering the tunnel's entrance, we could easily tell that the spores comes from this place. The walls and ground where covered in the green stuff and to make things worse, the end of the entrance leads down to a huge drop.

"So, how are you six going to get down there?" Proto then joined us and pointed at the four of us. I peaked over the edge throwing a rock down experimentally to have it disappear into the unknown for multiple seconds before it hit the bottom with a light click. Looking back at the group, I only shrugged.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that both Elsword's, Rena's, and Ravens swords are strong enough to pierce the rock without breaking and ride down on them along with Chi's scythe. I'm also pretty sure that Chung's Destroyer has enough power to cushion his fall once fired."

"And for you?"

"Well that's an easy one. See you guys at the bottom!" I then jumped backwards into the hole and started my decent barley hearing Proto say, "Oh the nerve of that boy." I spread my arms and legs out wide as I could with my back to the abyss bellow. I watch as the others flew over the edge after me with Elsword, Rena, Chi, and Raven sliding down the wall, Eve and Aisha floating down, and Proto flying right towards me. I flipped over still having my arms and legs out wide when Proto flew right beside me.

"Are you crazy!? You know that there isn't anything that can slow your decent!" I only smirked at that.

"Of course, I do. I have you to do that." I looked down to see that the ground was approaching and it was now or never to act. I reached out and grabbed Proto's hands as she slowed her decent. In doing so had swung me forward so I let go of her hands doing a somersault before landing on top of a corrupted Nasod Miner. Pulling out my pistol I unloaded 5 rounds into it's head before back flipping off of it. I look up to see Proto flying down with spears at the ready to strafing run on some other corrupted Nasod's. I turn around to see a a fairly large green spore float down to a broken down Nasod Miner and absorbed itself into it. It started to move in jolty movements and got up to it's feet to rev its drill before being crushed by Chung's cannon. He stepped out of the mini crater he had created and rushed forward when Nasod Excavator started to rise to have Raven, Elsword, Chi, and Rena come down on top of it and plunged their weapons into it before jumping off and continue with the mission. Running with the rest of the group, we continued on as Eve and Proto provided support from the air by attacking the Sonic Bats and the corrupted Nasods. We hacked and slashed through the corrupted Nasod's and the destroyed the large Alterasia spores and the Alterasia plants as we went through when we came to a giant Nasod Turret that was infected with an oversized Alterasia plant. It poked what you would call the 'head' of the plant out of the turret before locking itself away inside the turret with these metal doors.

"Well, this looks like it's going to be a problem." Chung hefted his cannon onto his shoulder and twirled his Silver Shooter around as he looked towards the turret.

"Problem or not, we still have to destroy it." We charged out the turret to destroy it's protective shield when two ports opened up and missiles started to fly out towards us. "Scatter!" We split up to engage the shield when multiple cannons popped up and opened fire on us. Chung brought up his Destroyer to block a cannon shot when one of the missiles impacted the ground in front of him sending him flying backwards into a wall. Raven and Elsword had made it to the bottom missile bay and began to destroy it and Proto was flying high with a machine gun shooting at the metal shield while also dodging fire from the cannons.

I ran at one of the cannons shooting it to get it's attention before jumping on top of it and blasted away at pointblank range before rolling off it. Chi had gone over to Chung who had fallen unconscious from the blast when Aisha and Eve finally broke the turrets barrier while Rena went over to help Raven and Elsword in destroying the missile launch bay. I rolled to the side as a cannon round wised past me and came up in a crouch to be knocked off to the side as a missile exploded next to me. My vision was blurry from the blast and I look to see the cannon aimed at me when multiple Nasod spears impale its side and caused it to explode. I was then hauled up to my feet by Proto who then flew off to finish off the last missile launch bay. Chung was now up and active for he and Chi are going at the plant itself. Eve and Proto finished off the final missile bay and the plant let out a deafening scream that caused us all to cover our ears before it's tentacles went limp and everything was quite.

"Was that it?" Elsword huffed and puffed from the fight.

"That almost seemed a little two easy." I looked skeptically at the turret knowing that it couldn't be that easy to defeat this when three yellow orbs started to form. Two at the missile holes and one where the plant was exposed. Aisha had only brought up a shield as the lasers fired. The shield held for a moment but cracks started to form on the outer edges and sweat started to bead up on Aisha's forehead from the exertion. Elsword ran up to add his magic energy having the cracks retract come but to have them once again creep towards the center when finally it the laser stopped. Aisha then collapsed while Elsword leaned on his sword to keep his balance. Raven and Rena helped Elsword and Aisha into cover while I signaled Proto down for a second.

"What do you want? We're in a middle of a battle you know?"

"Yeah, I know that, but I have an idea that might end this fight." I explained the plan and she gave me a worried look as always. "I know it sounds crazy but I'm positive it will end this." An explosion shook the ground. Turning around I saw both Chi and Chung get sent flying backwards from an explosion. I turned back around and Proto nodded. I pulled out my sniper rifle and let it hang, by its strap, loosely around my neck and took her hand. Flying upwards, we came level to the red orb of the plant. She started to spin around in a circle with myself hanging on before letting go flinging into the plant.

"Charge Shot!" I sat suspended by this weird orange red colored liquid and all I could see was a red orange color. The end of my gun lit up with light and I pulled the trigger. My gun went off inside of the plant when a chain explosion went off sending me flying out of the plant back into the cave, covered in that weird red orange liquid slim. My HUD started to go fuzzy before shorting out and going black. Sighing I pulled it off and stuffed into one of my jacket pockets. I look at the Nasod turret as it exploded into a cloud of smoke and dust.

"Well, that takes care of that." Chung holstered his gun while everyone relaxed from their fighting positions.

"Easy for you to say, you didn't get covered in this red orange slime. Plus it also tastes disgusting. I knew that it was a bad idea." I wiped off a glob of the goop off of my jacket.

"But hey, it worked and it destroyed the plant. Mission accomplished." Elsword was sitting on the ground chewing away on corner of a hard tart before taking a gulp on his water skin.

"You and Aisha doing all right? You two looked exhausted after holding up that shield." Aisha only smilled.

"We're both fine, just a little tired. We'll both be all right. Though I still could've done it without your help Elsword."

"What do you mean without my help!? You so needed that extra power to hold that shield up!"

"It means that I'm stronger than you~."

_'Great, when I thought that their arguing was behind them.'_ I sighed looking down while putting my hand up on my head. I only looked up to see Rena in her scary form walking up to Aisha and Elsword.

"Are you two fighting again after a long time of quietness?" Both of them looked up at her instantly backing down from their heated discussion.

"Of course not Rena! We aren't arguing right Elsword?" She gave a death glare at Elsword but he didn't need further questioning for his answer.

"No! Not at all! See me and Aisha are friends!"

"Good~!" She then returned into her normal cheery self when I saw Eve staring at the location that the infected Nasod turret. The dust and smoke was starting to clear from the area when I notice that beams of sunlight started to penetrate through. The smoke cleared and the dust settled to revile a broad plain on the other side.

"Where do you think it leads to Eve?"

"I'm not really sure but there's only one way to find out. Aisha, Elsword, I think you two should head back. Rena, do you mind escorting them back?"

"No problem, lets go you guys." Rena went over to help support Aisha and started to walk back to the village while Elsword went over to Eve.

"Please stay safe." He kissed her on the cheeks before jogging over to Rena. Eve had a slight blush on her face and tried to hide it by turning towards the plains entrance. We fallowed her through the entrance into the sun filled plain. I took a deep breath of the crisp fresh air before pulling out my pistol and SMG, holding them at a ready low position. Eve seemed to stair off into the distance as if she's reading a map when she grabbed her head in pain and fell to her knees.

"Eve!" We got into a defensive circle around her with our weapons on alert and our eyes watching for an attack. My eyes graze over the surface looking for any sign out trouble when I heard her whisper, "Wait... I know that voice." I flicked the safety off on both guns of my weapons when Eve finally got up.

"Eve, what was that all about?" She looked at me with her poker face but I could make out some confusion before turning away.

"Lets move out, I need to confirm something." Both Moby and Reby looked confused and Proto had a slight frown on her face. 'What's with them? Did it have to do with that moment?' I gave a light shake of my head before fallowing the others but I couldn't shake this feeling that we were being watched by someone. I look behind me scanning the area before turning around. We all walked for sometime without encountering any enemy resistance and that got us on edge. I stayed at the rear of the group with my guns ready when a Nasod Scorpion jumped out of the bush at me. I raised up my SMG unloading a burst into it before smashing it into to the ground with the but of my pistol. Just then more, and more scorpions came out and attacked us and we welcomed the action.

"God, I was wondering when they were going to make their move. I was starting to get really bored with all of this walking around." We fought through the scorpions before heading off farther. I glance off to the side and let a burst from my SMG rip through some Oro's and destroyed an Oro House when huge chunks of ice started to fall from the sky.

"Incoming!" We all bounded and weaved our way through the ice shower when a blue Nasod, with a huge cannon like right arm, stepped out and glared at us.

"Why Eve? Why must you betray your kingdom!?" He pointed his cannon at us, causing multiple ice spikes to shoot out from the ground. I back flipped twice to avoid the attack before bringing my guns up and unloaded into him.

"My suspicions are confirmed, it was you Leviathan. Where's your brother Ignis and when did you acquire the ability to use ice as a weapon? I never remembered you having that ability! Why are you attacking your Queen!?" She sent multiple electric balls at him that exploded on impact.

"Much has changed in your absence but you are not considered the Queen anymore! You have betrayed your kingdom, there's nothing left for you."

"But, we still got something for you. We get a special delivery for you! Heavy Railgun!" Chung lifted his Destroyer into a shoulder firing position and shot off a high velocity cannon shot into him. Leviathan was thrown back from the explosion and teleported away leaving Eve in a state of shock and anger.

"Eve, you all right?" I walk over to her placing my hand on her shoulder and she turned around sharply.

"All right? Of course I'm not all right. My kingdom has been taken from me and my position was stripped away from me!" She yelled at me and I back off looking away. The others looked worried about Eve and Proto came up.

"Look Eve, we know that you are angry about all of this, but don't take it out Blaze here. Don't take your anger out on a friend, but on the enemy." Eve's face was contorted with rage but it slowly faded as she realizes her mistake.

"You're...you're right Proto, sorry for the yelling Blaze, it's just that, ergh! It's just so frustrating to know that everything you had just taken away from you."

"It's all right Eve, we are in this together and we will try to figure something out to change things. Everyone here in the group has lost something important to them yet we still fight. Now cheer up and lets finish this." She nodded before looking down the path.

"From what I can tell by my scanners, there a fairly large concentration of El energy somewhere down there." I locked new mags. into my SMG and pistol mag. wells before starting our trek towards the energy source. I shivered as a breeze whipped through the tree and being covered in that nasty plant juice didn't help one bit. We came upon a wide flat area when the same Nasod from before appeared on the right along with Nasod that was the same except the color, who must be Ignis.

"Everyone, both of their weaknesses are their generators. Destroy them and we will have a fighting chance!" Both Ignis and Leviathan raised their arms up into the air and meteorites mixed with freezing ice shards fell towards us. The six of us split up into two teams of three with Chi, Chung, and Raven going after Ignis's power generator leaving Proto, Eve, and I to take on Leviathan's generator.

"Go after the generator while I distract him!" I branch off from the two and weaved myself though the onslaught of fire and ice, I cracked off a few shots at Leviathan before placing both my SMG and pistol back into their holsters before drawing my sniper rifle. Rolling to the side dodging multiple ice spikes that shot out of the ground, I come up into a crouching position with my rifle raised. I brought it up aimed at the blue Nasod who sent down a rain of ice at Eve and Proto before charging at me with incredible speed. I only fired off one shot before having the rifle ripped up and back out of my hands. I rolled backwards retrieving the ruined rifle finding the but stock and a portion of the grip shattered. I replaced it back in it's holster on my back and pulled out my 416. I backflipped again to avoid another one of Leviathans charges and brought up my gun pulling the trigger firing of seven shots before it jammed. I pull the bolt back ejecting the spent cartridge to see that it was covered in that orange red plant goop.

"Damit!" I look down to see an ice spike shoot up from the ground. I jumped up an away from it trying to avoid it, but it still touched the edge of my boot and ice started to form on it before spreading up my leg up to my knee. The ice and fire is still falling and I could see that both Eve and Proto busy destroying the generator along with the others. I look up and roll to my right as an ice shard fell right where I used to be laying but, it still nicked me causing ice to form seizing up my right arm and my gun in a right angle. I struggled to get up on one of my legs and succeeded to see Chung getting knocked back by an attack by Ignis, but Chi and Raven had destroyed the its generator and began attacking him. I grunted as Leviathan grabbed me from behind and spoke to me.

"So pitiful that we have to destroy you, you where such a great asset to the Nasod Kingdom."

"What do you mean asset?"

"Oh, you still don't know? Well, I bet this will jog your memory _Alpha_!" My eye's widened as he hurled me towards Eve and Proto. He must have misjudged the throw for he had thrown me straight into the damaged generator. The impact had finished it off that caused an explosion that had freed both my arm and legs.

"Blaze!" I was on the ground with the sparking generator next to me and my vision was blurred and I couldn't see out of my right eye. But from what I could see through the blurry vision, I could make out Proto and Eve coming towards me but halted just short of me. "Oh, my god..." At that I knew something was wrong. I tried to move my right arm and I could only move it slightly before nothing at all. Proto was now kneeling next to me and Eve had her back to me and only glanced a few times at me with confusion on her face before heading out to fight Leviathan. Propping myself up on my left arm, I glance down at my right arm expecting to see it all bloodied and broken but came to a shock to see that what was supposed to be my 'skin' torn into shreds and underneath it all was a metallic arm that was broken and sparking. I then looked down at my leg to see the same with my pants leg torn up revealing a broken and sparking metallic leg. I looked back down at my arm and then up to Proto who was just as confused as I was.

"I never really knew who I was before and I had an idea who I might have been. But now, I don't even know what I am. Tell me, how bad do you think all of this is?" She only glanced away from me and bit her lower lip. "Please, tell me how bad it is." She sighed and turned back to me.

"From what I can tell right now from a visual scan is that your right arm is destroyed, your right eye must have been damaged for it is now a grey color, and you right leg didn't suffer as badly as your arm did but you can still walk on it for a short time before it needs to be replaced." I sighed at her analysis before asking her to help me up to my feet. We both walked over to the remains of my 416 rifle and placed that back in the holster too. I could see that the others had finished off Ignis and Leviathan when they had noticed Proto and I.

"Oh my god Blaze, what happened to you." Chung, Chi, and Raven looked at me with astonishment and I only looked down.

"What happened is that I discovered who I really am, I'm a half Nasod."

* * *

**Anon: Well the secret stuff is now out in the open. Yes, Blaze is part Nasod!**

**Blaze: Why Nasod?**

**Anon: Because, being part demon is cool and all, but Nasods I think are cooler then them.**

**Chibella: Why you little son of a-**

**Anon: But demons are cool too! Plus the amount of demon OC's to other types of race is waaaayyyyy bigger**

**Chibella: Good.**

**Anon: So now that the secrets out, I guess I have some filling in for Blaze's Job Changes. Whooh I have a lot of work ahead of me**


	11. Chapter 11 Revelation

_**Eve's POV:**_

I look at Blaze before looking past him at the remains of both Leviathan and Ignis. _'Is it possible? Could I-'_ My thoughts where then interrupted by Chung.

"We need to head back. It's to dangerous to stay out here with Blaze's condition." I turn to him and nod.

"Of course. But, I also think that we a few of us should come back here to try to salvage the remains of those two Nasods. You may never know, they might come in handy." He nodded and we started our journey back though progress was slow due to Blaze's damaged leg but we made it back into the transporting tunnel and up the ladder that the Ponggo's must have placed in for easy access to this area. Making it up, we reached the village and everyone was staring at Blaze as we made it through up to our house while Raven, Chi, and Chung branched off to ask Adel if he could have a group come out and salvage the Ignis's and Leviathans remains.

We reached the front door and was about to open it when it swung open with Rena on the other side. "Welcome back!" She had her all present smile on her face as I stepped in but it quickly faded as she caught sight of Blaze. She gasped and covered up her mouth as he stepped in with the help of Proto.

"Hey, I from what I hear you are back!" Elsword yelled as he stepped out of his room. "So how did everything g-. Oh my god, what happened out there!?" Aisha then also pocked her head out through her door to investigate all the yelling when she too saw Blaze.

"Take him to my room." Proto nodded and they both went for it past Elsword before I went up to him and he hugged me.

"Oh I'm glad you're all right but tell me what happened to Blaze." I was blushing a bit and told him the short version of our journey from Leviathan's telepathic chat at the beginning to the fight with the two Nasods brothers.

'_We're waiting for you. Can you hurry your little conversation up a bit?'_

'_Yeah, yeah coming.'_ I turn my attention back to Elsword as my littler interaction between Proto finished. "Please excuse me Elsword but I need to tend to Blaze." He backed into his room to let me pass and I entered my room to see Blaze sitting in a chair and looking down at his destroyed Nasod arm and then up to me with his one good eye. I sit down opposite to him and pull up my holographic console and began a scan on Blaze. A few seconds later, an outline his body came up with the right half of his head, his right arm, and right leg as flashing red.

"It looks like both of your legs, your right arm, and the right side of your head was converted into the Nasod tech yet the rest of your body is still human though I can't find anything right now that tells me why you went under this conversion."

"So what now?" I look up at the screen before typing a few keys on my keyboard and my Nasod pod's door opened up.

"You'll get into the pod and we will commence the operation." He nodded and with the help from Proto he got into it and I pressed a key on my keyboard closing it. Wires began to connect to his head, arm, and legs before he went to sleep.

"That was the easy part, now for the hard part." My fingers flew over the keyboard as I gave the pod's system directions and designs to replace and add to Blaze. Finishing with that task, all we could do was wait for the reconstruction to be complete.

'_So, he's going to be all right?'_ Proto was no longer in the room with me and gone back to my head.

'_He will be fine Proto. All we can do now is to wait for the pod to complete the reconstruction.'_ I could see her sigh and relaxed her shoulders.

'_Well, that's great to here but I feel pretty tiered. Wake me back up when it's complete.'_ She then faded out as she went to sleep and I could hear the others return. I set the pod to alert me when or if something comes up before going to see the others.

"Hey Eve, we got the parts from those two Nasods and wow can Ponggo's haul a lot of items!" I peak out behind them to see two large sleds filled with the parts and I only smiled. I walked outside and took stock of all the parts they had and it was well enough to create what I had in mind when my system started to beep. I pulled up my console to see what it was all about and it was the pod calling for me. Gliding back inside to my room I look at it's screen to see flashing red text that says,

"**ERROR, ERROR, RECONSTRUCTION INCOMPLETE. USERS SYSTEMS OUTDATED FOR THE UPGRADES!"** I sigh as I saw this and Proto came back into my mind rubbing her eyes.

'_I can't even get 5 minutes of sleep before you wake me? The repairs shouldn't be done now, it's way to short.'_

'_That's the thing, Blaze's code is to outdated for the upgrades.'_

'_So, write him a new one.'_

'_I could do that, but I was thinking.'_

'_Thinking what exactly?'_

'_I know that you and Blaze are close and all, and I was wondering if you wanted to replace his code.'_

'_Eve, you know what will happen to you once I'm removed from your system.'_

'_I know the risks, but I was wondering what your opinion on this would be.'_ She hesitated for a second before answering.

'_I don't know. If I leave you, then all the power that you have now will vanish leaving you vulnerable to the enemy.'_

'_I have a solution to that problem. But, from that hesitation, please go.'_

'_But-'_

'_Proto, just go.'_

'_All right. But we need a second Nasod pod if we're going to complete the transaction between Blaze and yourself.'_ I brought up the list of parts we have taking out what I need before looking back at the rest.

'_Good, there's still enough left for the second half of this plan to work.'_ With the help of Moby, Remy, and Proto, I got all the parts I needed and had built the second pod next to the one that Blaze is in. I told Elsword and the others what I had planned and they only gave me questionable looks while Elsword looked worried. I hooked up the two pods and was typing on my keyboard when I heard Elsword's voice.

"You sure, you want to do this Eve? You will lose all the power that you have now." I rested my hands on my keyboard before looking at Elsword who's standing at the door.

"I'm sure." I finished typing up the transaction between my pod and Blaze's before resting in my own. Moby and Remy both powered down right beside me and I brought up my console one more time.

'_You ready for this Proto?'_

'_Ready as I'll ever be.' _ I hit enter on my keyboard and I could feel my power fade from me as Proto was transferred over to Blaze's systems. I vision started to get hazy as a monotone voice sounded in my head.

**"Transaction complete. Code Q-Proto_00 successfully transferred to the Unit Alpha-01."**

'_Alpha-01? That's his unit number? Why does it sound so familiar?'_ I couldn't finish the thought as the wires extended down connecting to my body and the same monotone voice form before sounded again.

**"Preparing for Code: Architecture activation. Are you sure you want to confirm the activation?"**

"Yes." I said weakly before I went under.

**"Commencing Code: Architecture activation sequence."**

* * *

_**Blaze's POV:**_

"Repairs complete. Code Q-Proto_00 installation confirmed. Nasod armored augmentation in placed. Activation sequence now commencing." A monotone voice rung in my head as I opened my eye's drowsily. I felt something move on my head and soon a grey visor flipped down over my eyes and it light up showing my systems powering up through a percentage bar. As the numbers went up, new icons enlarged in the center before shrinking and move off to the sides of the HUD. Reaching 100% Proto's head then appeared in the upper righthand corner of the HUD causing me to jump a bit.

"You're awake. That's a good sign."

"Proto!? What are you doing there?"

"Don't you remember the pods system telling you that, 'Code Q-Proto_00 installation confirmed.' You do remember right?"

"Yes, now I remember." I sighed with a small smile on my face. "Wait, if you're the code inside of me, then what happened with Eve?"

"Oh she will be all right. She might not have the same power as she had when I was installed but she has an alternate code to solve tat problem. Now shall we get this pod open to see the changes Eve has made?" I flipped up my visor as the pod's door split down the middle and folded to the side. I reached my hand out to grasp the sides of the pod to lift myself out and I instantly noticed my right arm had changed. It no longer had a skin coating on it and was completely metallic and was covered in some thick armor platting. Pulling myself up and out, I look down at my arm and clenched my fist experimentally.

'_So this is who I really am?' _I then looked at a mirror in Eve's room to see I still had my shoulder long hair but the red highlights where gone when I notice something on the back of my head. Fluffing my hair slightly I notice that under all the black was some silverish white under there. The visor that I had on was connected to these square objects that covers both of my ears. I examined them both when some black metal folded out forming a face mask over my mouth and nose before I had it retracted back into the head piece. I then noticing that my normal pants were replaced with these grey armored pants and armored boots. My visor then flipped back down with Proto in the righthand corner still looking at me when a 3D diagram of the pants showed up in the center. It spun in a 360 before stopping and having tags of information popped off of it.

"Ah yes. Eve added this armored shell for your legs that connects itself to the Nasod ones underneath."

"Will they limit the amount of movement I have?"

"Not at all. They will move fluently like your legs would normally would yet provide the protection and support of regular armor. They can also me removed when they aren't needed."

"That's good. What else did she put into me?" The 3D model of the armor shrunk and was replaced with another model of my right arm.

"Obviously the last one was demolished in the fight against Leviathan, but it wasn't suited for combat nor was it suitable for todays combat. A more sturdy combat version of the arm was installed with armor plating to reinforce it's protective capabilities. Also, the strength that can be exerted is much greater since the other one was calibrated for a humans strength." The model then turned so the top was facing me and Proto soon continued.

"Oh, this is interesting." The model of my arm then shot out a blade from the topside and I only raised my eyebrow. I then raised my hand in front of me and clenched my fist and tensed my arm causing the blade to shoot out. I swung it experimentally a few times before retracting it.

"This will be helpful. Does that sum up all the changes?"

"That does it for the physical changes. As for the internal and systematical ones, you've obviously obtained me as your new system code. You also had some of your programming altered to acquaint the use of your sword." I take one look at Eve's pod before opening the door and walked out to my room.

"So, how are my other weapons fairing?" Four new images popped up on the left hand side and I scrolled down to my sniper rifle. I diagram popped up with tags coming off of it before the grip and stock light up red. Frowning I then scrolled over to my assault rifle and a diagram of it too came up with the barrel again was broken and light up red. I scrolled through my pistol and SMG knowing that they were perfectly fine, just needing a bit of cleaning, but I knew that they no longer fit my fighting style. I entered my room to see all of my equipment set off to the side of the wall and sat on my bed.

"So, what do you think we can do to salvage any of these weapons?" Proto then popped out as I pressed some buttons on my console to bring up a 3 dimensional intractable hologram projection with my 416 and M24.

"Hmm. Well, first of all, lets get rid of those broken parts." Proto flicked her hand on the two guns removing the lower receiver of the sniper rifle leaving the barrel and scope and removing the barrel of the assault rifle. "What kind of gun do you want to build?"

"I would like something that is accurate at range like a sniper yet still have the full-auto capabilities of an assault rifle." I flicked the barrel of the sniper rifle over to the other parts that we had and formed a new shell around them.

"Though it seems to bulky and heavy." She flicked away some other parts that weren't needed but left the gun a little front heavy. We continued back and forth with the designs until we came up with something that was perfect.

"So it's settled? The M14EBR design is the winner?"

"You bet it is. Though throughout that planning, I feel a little under protected. I've had this idea in mind but I couldn't think of a suitable power source when I thought, 'Why not use the El energy?'" Saving the current designs for my new weapon and then brought up my left glove before going into a heated discussion of how we are going to project the El energy without having all the energy distribute out leaving no shield or a weak one when Eve came in.

"Well, the two of you seem well very active." Her outfit looked different from the one that she had before. She now has her haired curled up into these rolls on the side of her head instead of having it flow down her back. She didn't have her black dress anymore but more of a suit with some armor in vital locations. She looked more like she belonged to royalty than with her other outfit.

"Ah, Eve. You're awake."

"I see you are aware of your advancements?"

"Completely. The two of us had also been working out plans for some extras." She walked up to the model to examine it before altering it.

"You don't need these extra circuits there. Removing them will cause a high output in energy to strengthen the shield along with making it fairly larger." Thanking her I saved the designs for the glove for later.

"Do you know where everyone is? It seems awfully quite around here." She then handed me a slip of paper and read it out loud.

"We'll be out of the house for some things and we'll be back later if you woke up to find us missing. Elsword." I handed back the slip of paper before flipping up my visor up.

"Though there is something that I need your help with." The holographic projection was still up and she pulled out her own console before sending in a model of a figure. Leaning my elbow on my knee and resting my chin on my hand, I looked at the figure with interest.

"This is Oberon. He was one of my servants when the Nasod kingdom was at it's greatest, and when we weren't at war. I still have the data to build him along with a copy of his original code. From the parts that the others scavenged from the remains of Ignis and Leviathan and I think there's also enough to build this new device that you and Proto were conversing about." Nodding we all set out for the area were the parts were being held and began construction. At first it looked nothing like Oberon before but just a metal frame with some circuits here and there but slowly he started to come together. Finally after spending lots of time and effort, Oberon was finished. He now lay finished with his code being implemented into his systems. I sat in my room with Proto hovering behind me as I placed the final piece to the glove. I pulled it on and activated it to be rewarded with a blue tinted round shield that spans the width of my arm before I deactivated it.

"Proto, we did it again." She hugged when I heard the front door open and pairs of foot steps fallowed.

"Well looks they're home. Lets go down to meet them." I got up and exited my room before heading down stairs with my armor clanking around slightly as I went down the stairs. Reaching the the bottom, I could see that they were carrying some food along with some other supplies for our journey when they noticed Porto and I come down.

"Well looks who's awake! How are you feeling Blaze?" Elsword yelled and slapped me on the back.

"I feel great yet different."

"What do you mean by different?" Elsword said scratching the back of his head. Aisha then went up to him and slapped the back of his head.

"He means different by he knows who he really is Elbaka!" I sighed as I watched the two argue knowing that things are still the same for those two. Rena glared a them quelling the argument and I smiled when all of a sudden a crashing sound came from upstairs fallowed up by some yelling.

"Now what the hell could that be?" Chi tilted her head before another sound of something breaking came again fallowed up with some more yelling.

"That sound like Eve. Lets go check it out." We all went upstairs to Eves door and opened it to see two figures. One of Eve who was standing up arms crossed and looked down disappointedly at the other figure who was kneeling down picking up the shards of a broken mirror.

"Eve who is this?" Rena asked. Eve then looked up and noticed us in the door and turned to us.

"Oh so I guess that Oberon is online now?" I asked.

"Who!?" Everyone yelled at me and I only pointed my thumb at the kneeling figure.

"Yes, yes he did. He can be a hands full but he is a loyal, strong, and trustworthy ally." He finished picking up the glass before depositing them in the waste basket before walking behind Eve and stayed there. "Though he isn't complete yet. We still need to get him his weapons."

"You could always go down to the towns blacksmith." Elsword said.

"And that's exactly where I'm going to go."

"Hey, you mind if I tag along? I need a few things done down there too."

"Sure, you can come Blaze. Now come Oberon, we have some business to do." Eve went out of the door and the others parted giving her room to get out and Oberon and I fallowed.

"Hey, I'm pretty tiered so I'm going to sleep. Don't wake me up unless we're going on a mission would ya." Proto then disappeared going back into my system. Going to my room, I retrieved the parts that I could salvage along with strapping my pistol to my leg just for safe measures before going down stairs to catch up with Eve and Oberon. The Ponggo's have gotten used to seeing Eve around but some still looked at me with concern peaking out on their faces. I guess the fact that they couldn't guess that I was a Nasod before and think that I was human could put people on edge. Walking through the town, we reached the black smiths place and we could see the light of the flames and the clank of metal being pounded echoed from the work place. We approached the opening when the sound of clanking ceased and a furry head popped around the corner fallowed up with a feminine voice.

"May I help you?"

"Are you the owner of this place?" The figure then stepped out to talk with us.

"Why yes, I am. Black smith Agatha at your service. So, what might you want crafted. A sword, knife, or maybe something more techie?"

"Do you think you could craft this up?" Eve stepped forward with the schematics for Oberon's duel blades and Agatha looked at them with a smile.

"Of course I can craft those up."

"How much will they be?"

"Well the regular price for something like those fine work of a blade would be around 20,000ED but since you all done so much to help our village out, I'll cut you a deal and lower it to 10,000ED." While Eve and Agatha talked out that information, I walked over to one of the weapons that she had hung up and one of the swords caught my attention. Taking it off from were it hung, I pulled the blade out and examined it to see that it had a close resemblance to my original sword. I swung it around experimentally in my right hand before switching to my left and tested the balance and feel for it before re-sheathing it.

"How much for this sword?"

"Hm, for that sword... Lets say 8,700ED" I pulled out my coin pouch and payed the amount before fixating the sheath on the left side of my back.

"Can I also use part of your shop? I've got somethings that I would like to craft."

"Knock yourself out, this place is big enough for both of us." Agatha called out over the clanging of some metal for Oberon's blades. I was about to go in as well to work on my gun when I notice Eve and Oberon leaving. Catching them before they left I asked Eve.

"Hey, I've been wondering if you got any other information about my Nasod past self?"

"All I know so far is your unit type which is, Unit: Alpha-01. Other than that, I don't know anything else."

"When you get back to the others, tell them were I'm at but also can you do some research on my background. I am sure that there's something about me that's in the Nasod data base."

"I will." Thanking her, they left back for the house while I turned back around bringing out the parts that I brought and set them on a work bench before flipping down my visor to bring up the schematics to find the parts that needed to be crafted. Taking a piece of metal and extending my face mask I begin to shape the parts together.

* * *

_**Eve's POV:**_

"I won't need your services for now Oberon. You may do what you want until I call for you." He nodded before plopping down on the couch and fell right asleep. I walked upstairs and took a quick glance at my scanner to find two heat signatures in both Chung and Ravens rooms and a lone one in Elsword and Aisha's room. I giggled knowing who might be in there before going into my own. Plopping down onto my bed, I open up my console and scrolled to the data storage area. Searching his unit number, I came up with a document that was password locked and had the Nasod royal seal on the front of it. Typing in the password the locked symbol turned green and opened up and the royal seal disappeared and be replaced with a name scroll across that said, "Project: Masquerade" flashed across the screen before having multiple files and documents fill the screen. Clicking on the first one it filled the screen and I began reading it taking note that the date of this was during the Nasod Human War.

"_The Project has gotten an O.K from the Nasod King and we are bringing in the subjects as I speak. The operation on the first subject will begin once we have them all down into the lab. I do say, they do put up a big struggle as we take them in but their struggling with cease once we're done."_ I exited that document and moved on to the file next to it to come up with a list of groups consisting of their assigned unit number, age, and a picture of them. Clicking on the first file, I began to read again.

"_Unit Alpha-01, this is Blaze's file. Age... 13 years old..."_ I was taken back at the age that he was taken at and what they've done to him. _"Unit Alpha-02. Age, 17. Unit Alpha-03. Age, 21. Unit Alpha-03. Age 16. Unit Alpha-04. Age 26. Unit Alpha-05. Age, 27."_ I continue looking through the file finding multiple groups of units with 5 people in each of them. Beta, Gamma, Delta, Theta, and Epsilon. The ages ranged from a mer 13 years old to as old as 35. Backing out of this one, I went on to the next one and they had information on the tests.

"_Testing has been done on the older subjects but... Units Alpha-03, 04, and 05 along with the Theta-03 and 04, Delta-01 and 04, and the entire Gamma Units have either died during the operation or died shortly after the completion of the operation. Further study of how the human body will be put in play with the dissection of Unit Beta-04. We hope that the dissection will yield information." _I grimaced as I read the last part. I struggled to remember what happened all those years ago but with no success and the documents kept on getting worse and worse as they went.

"_Units Beta and Epsilon-02, 03 and 01... All Units in Beta and Epsilon are killed through the operation... Success with Unit Theta-01 and 02 with being the longest to survive the operation but are now dead. The Nasod King isn't liking that this Project isn't creating results. We need to get it right or he might just pull the plug on this project... Success with Unit Alpha-01. Life signs are high and his body is copping well with the added Nasod tech and will be presented to the King and Queen in a day."_

A memory went through my mind as I read that last line. I remember now being on the throne with the Nasod King on a monitor watching the presentation. I remember being presented with the Projects success. Looking at the small child with black spiked hair and those fiery red eyes. He looked so normal, like a human should be, when he was presented. I've only heard about snippets of this project from the Nasod King who handled all the projects on the war effort and I with the Nasod citizens here. Little did I know what they were doing to the people in this project and it only makes me sick of the war even more than I was then.

"_Units Delta-02 and 05, Alpha-02, and Theta-04, has had success in the operation as well and are showing promising life signs. These four Units along with Alpha-01 are the only ones that survived the operation with the others dead. Combat programing will be implanted in each unit and should all should be ready for battle soon." _I've gone through all the files and I'm down to the last three files when I notice Elsword at the door.

"What are you doing there Evey?" I blushed slightly and looked away when he called me my nick name for him.

"Just some research." I tried to hide the guilt in my voice but it didn't convince him. He walked into my room and pulled a chair out and sat in front of me.

"Eve, I know it when there's something bothering you. Tell me, what is it." I sighed and went to the front of the file that has the project name on it and I flipped the screen around to show him.

"'Project: Masquerade'? What's that?"

"A project that I knew little about during the Human Nasod War." I then clicked on the file that had everyone listed that was part of the project.

"Wait, is that..." He looked at the first person that was on the list before looking at me and I nodded sadly. "That's Blaze... And all of this was done to him at the age of 13. But if he's on this list, and this was done during the Nasod Human War, that means that he's thousands of years old." I then exited the file and went to the documents and opened it.

"_Units Delta-02 and Theta-04 were ready to be placed into the war and they infiltrated the enemies camp and managed to relay some information back to us when one of the humans discovered both of the units sending the transmission. Theta-04 reported that both of them were discovered and that unit managed to get away but Delta-02 was destroyed. The lone unit managed to get a signal off to us that from the humans finding out about Delta and Theta had pushed up their assault for the next day instead of 4 days ahead before it to was destroyed. Units Delta-05 and Alpha-01 and 02 are battle ready and are waiting to be deployed by the Kings order."_ Closing this one I look up at Elsword who was shocked to hear this.

"So you were completely unaware of this happening?" I nodded my head.

"I didn't want the war to happen at all. I wanted for both of our races to live peacefully with one another and when the war broke out, I wanted little to do with it. That's why I built the Nasod King, I built him to handle the war effort."

"_The project is being terminated. The Nasod King wanted to destroy the remaining units but Queen Eve wanted to preserve them. Through her little known knowledge about this project, and the risks if the humans find these units when the Nasod race is reborn in a time of peace, had caused her to fight for them. The Nasod King reluctantly agreed to preserve them and both of the Alpha units are now in preservation pods that have been shipped out to an unknown location through the Elrios continent but Unit Delta-05 declined being placed in one of these pods and wanted to stay to and was armed with heavy duty equipment and Queen Eve requested him to join Oberon and Ophelia as her guards. This will be the final entry for Project: Masquerade."_

I closed my eyes as the memory of that day came back to me. _We were racing through the halls of my castle with Oberon and Ophelia at my sides and Delta was in the rear with both his arms clad in Nasod armor holding an Atomic Blaster in each with the experimental Black Hole Generator on his back. We ran into the preservation room and with the help of Oberon, Delta closed the door and locked it. Ophelia stayed with me as we tried to find an empty pod when a giant thud came from the door fallowed by the cry of warriors on the outside. Ophelia quickly found an empty pod that still gave me a view of the front door._

"_Delta, Oberon! If they get through the door, keep them occupied while Eve enters her preservation mode!" Ophelia yelled over to the others. I could see that Delta had his weapons trained for the door and Oberon had his swords drawn. The entrance to the chamber opened up when the sound of metal bending and crashing down came from behind. I whirled around to see that the door has failed and Delta opened fire while Oberon cut down the enemies that passed by Delta. Moby and Remy settled down inside the pod and I stepped in to it as Ophelia started the preservation sequence. Screams of terror and pain sounded as Delta abandoned both his Atomic Blasters and now held the Black Hole Generator. A black sphere was at the tip of the nozzle sucking in the humans before exploding. He was going to fire off another black hole when he twisted in pain as an arrow struck his arm before falling lifeless with an arrow sticking out of his neck. I could see Oberon being over ran and chopped down into pieces when Ophelia was struck in the arm with a stray arrow. All I could do was watch helplessly from the inside of the pod as Ophelia hit enter starting the preservation process. I began to go under when I saw an arrow pierce through her head leaving a sparking hole in her head and her body fell down lifeless when I went under._

I came back to reality shedding a tear.

"What's wrong?" I couldn't say anything and no words came to me as I turned to face Elsword and broke down crying into his chest. He hugged me firmly and comforted me as I cried. I continued to cry for a few more minutes before I stopped and looked up at Elsword who had comforted me through that.

"Thank you." I then leaned forward and kissed him before pulling back to see Oberon at the door. "It's nothing to worry about Oberon. You can go back to doing what you were doing." He nodded and started to leave when I called after him.

"Wait, Oberon!" He stopped at turned towards me. "Tell, do you remember Delta?" He looked down and off to the side and nodded his head with some sadness. "So you remember that day..." He nodded again before leaving with his head hung a bit low and his feet heavy.

"For a Nasod that doesn't speak that often, he really does say a lot." I nodded my head slowly before reading the final document.

"Hey, wait. This says that this document was made recently. In fact, four years ago!" I check the date and Elsword was correct, this was made about four years ago.

"_Unit Alpha-01 pod malfunctioned and his activation is confirmed. He is located close to the human village named Eden. The long distance scan shows that his memory is corrupted so there's no risk in that he knows his past but there's always the threat that physical contact will reveille his secret. We will monitor Unit Alpha-01's progress and document his interactions just like we did with Subject: Raven. UPDATE: Unit Alpha-01 has discovered his origin. Monitoring his interactions is no longer needed." _I finished reading the document and closed it too when we heard the door open down stairs.

"Well, I guess he's back home." I got up from my bed and Elsword fallowed. As I passed the others rooms, I could hear that they were starting to stir as well for it was getting close to dinner. Reaching down stairs I could see Blaze had a new rifle was on his back in a new holster and he also carried a wooden box that must be Oberon's swords. I looked over at Oberon to see that he was hunched over a bit with his head extended forward with his hands rubbing together and he was shaking with joy. He acted like a kid about to get an exciting gift. He glanced over to were he sensed another presence at the bottom of the stair and quickly straightened up feet together with one arm behind his back and his head looking up and away with his other hand resting under it. I only shook my head with a small smile on my face.

"You don't have to act like that now Oberon. You can be excited now for I bet you will love them." He instantly went back to his other positioned and Blaze grinned at that before handing over the box. Oberon opened it and looked inside to see two silver blades on the inside. He placed the box down before prancing around the room with happiness. Blaze looked at me and cocked his head to the side and raised an eyebrow while I face palmed.

"OK, when I said to be excited, I didn't mean for you to be that excited. I will let this one go. It's been almost for ever since you have moved around and gotten your swords." He came back to the box and lifted out the two sword sheaths inside before pulling one of the blades and swung it experimentally.

"So, you like them." He nodded his head enthusiastically as he equipped both of his sheathes onto his belt and went up stairs to my room to sleep on his bed. I then looked towards Blaze.

"So, what exactly did you find?" The smile that I had before went away slightly before going away slowly.

"I did find something, but I can't explain it. You'll have to see for yourself." I pulled up my console to send over all the files that I've read over to Blaze's console and he pulled up his own as he received it. He opened the first file and his face contorted with some sadness and confusion. He flipped to the next file and to the next until he staggered backwards before going over to a chair and plopped down in it burying his face in his hands. Elsword took a step forward but I shook my head and he understood when Proto appeared next to me.

"Eve, what did you show him? When he's upset about something, he would tell be but he's not even saying anything." He then dropped both of his down from his face and let them hang on his legs while he kept his head hung down. "Seriously Blaze, what's the matter?"

"Please. Please, just leave me alone for a while." He then got up out of the chair and walked up the stairs with his head still hung down and arms heavy. Chung and Chi passed him when they went down the stairs and looked at him concerned along with Rena who was at the top of the stairs.

"What's with him?" Chi pointed her thumb back at Blaze who just shut his door.

"Yeah, what is with him. He's never like that." Rena joined in.

"Just tell us Eve." Chung pleaded. Sighing, I told them everything from the project to the memories that I've had that had involved the project and they all were taken back.

"The experiments that were done at such a young age." Aisha said.

"The things that he must have seen and the time that he must have gone through." Chung chimed in.

"Wait... If he was 13 about 1 and a half years before the war ended and when it did, I was only 7 years old. That would mean that... WHAT!? HE'S OLDER THAN ME!?" Rena yelled.

"Though I am worried about him. He's never, ever, like this." Proto said.

"I bet he will get through it though. Anyway, dinner won't cook itself~!" Rena said cheering us up a bit. By the time dinner was done and served, Blaze hadn't come out of his room at all.

"I can't take it anymore. I'm going up there to talk to him." Proto then got up from the table and glided upstairs.

* * *

_**Proto's POV:**_

I went to Blazes door and knocked on it to get no answer. Opening the door and entering the room, I could see he was laying on his bed with his arm over his eyes.

"Go away." I called without looking up.

"Everyone is worried about you Blaze. Please just tell me what's wrong." He just laid there without moving. I sighed and walked over sitting near him on the edge of his bed and looked at him.

"Look, keeping it inside will just make it worse. Please, tell me whats wrong." He stood still for some time before getting up to sit next to me. "That's much better. Now tell me, what's bothering you? Is it a memory?"

He looked down before he looked at me. "That's the thing, I. Remember. Everything. Everything of my past and what happened to make me who I am today." He then broke down crying and I leaned over to hug him and his sobs were muffled on my shoulder.

"There, there. Everything's all right and just let it all out." I patted his back has he cried and his chest heaved and I only hugged him tighter and he hugged me in return before his sobs disappeared and his tears dried up. He lifted his head off my shoulder and he looked at me with his puffy eyes and he smiled.

"Thank you Proto." He then leaned in and gave me a deep passionate kiss. Parting I looked at him with a smile.

"No problem." He kissed me again before getting up and took off his armor and hung up his weapons before sliding under the covers and fell asleep. I left the room and went back down stairs and everyone looked at me with content eyes. "He's doing fine now. He was like that because..."

"Just what!?" Everyone shouted.

"Calm down, calm down. He was like that because he started to remember things."

"Remembered a small part of his past?" Raven asked curiously.

"He remembers everything."

"What do you mean by everything?"

"Everything as in everything. His parent's, his past, how he became a half Nasod." Everyone was silent and Rena broke the silence by announcing that she's heading off to bed and soon the others fallowed as well. I went back to Blaze's mind and he was sound asleep before I went to sleep as well for tomorrow is the day that we'll be back on our mission, to find the missing El.

* * *

**Anon: Sorry everyone for the long wait :(**

**Raven: Meh... *Goes on to read a magazine***

**Rena: Took you long enough though.**

**Anon: I know, that's why I tried to make it up with a long chapter :D I hope you enjoyed it and please review. I want your feed back. As for the cookie that I offered last time... Chung and Chi's gophers ate them all :/**


	12. Chapter 12 Infiltration

**Anon: Hmm... now how to punish the gophers for eating all the cookies... AHA! YOU ALL HAVE TO LISTEN TO ELSWORD SING!**

**Elsword: What? I don't sing that badly do I?**

**Aisha: YOu made me go deaf for a week.**

**Chung: You put me in the hospital**

**Eve: You cracked the El shard in my head.**

**Rena: YOU BROKE MY FAVORITE MIRROR!**

**Raven: You made my arm nearly choke me to death.**

**And there's also a new poll on my page for future chapters for my Velder high series.**

* * *

_**Blaze's POV:**_

_I sit in the cell with the rest of my group in the back huddling with my sister who was named Alpha-02 by the Nasods. With Theta-01 and 02 killed yesterday, it only left so little people left from the original group that they had pooled the rest into one big cell. We all were minding our own business when we all heard the clunk of the lock on the door to the cells opened. Everyone huddled away from the barred door of our cells as the clunk of heavy foot steps came closer to us. I hopped and prayed that he wouldn't stop at my cell and my sister hugged my harder trying to comfort me when he stopped at the front of our door. He took out some keys that unlocked the bars and slid them open._

"_Unit Alpha-01, your up next." Everyone parted gladly knowing that they weren't next and it left only my sister and I in the middle. He walked up and reached down grabbing me, ripping me from my sisters grasp._

"_No!" She tried to reach for me as he went out of the cell and he kicked her back into it violently before locking it again. I looked at her sadly as he locked the door again and smiled a farewell smile to her before I was taken away to the door. Behind me I could hear her crying before it was sealed away with a clunk of the heavy steel door. I was escorted to a metal chamber and strapped down to the cold metal table._

"_Beginning the operation." I had kept my cool since I left my sisters side but now I'm starting to become afraid for a metal saw extended down and started to spin. My eyes widened as I saw it and I tried to get free but I was locked down tightly and I was helpless as the saw the saw blade descended towards my arm._

"_AAAAHHHHHH!" I screamed as the saw blade started into my shoulders skin and bone before blacking out._

I woke up with someone shaking me and I shot up grabbing the persons neck before extending my arm blade to see that it was Eve. I let go instantly and retracted blade and watch as she rubbed her neck.

"Eve, I'm so sorry." She coughed once before replying.

"No, it's my fault for startling you."

"Why are you in my room?"

"Proto asked for me to come. She was worried about you for you were having irregular brain patterns and what you were mumbling in your sleep." My memory of the dream came back to me and I glanced down at my arm momentarily before looking back up.

"It was only a bad dream Eve. You shouldn't worry much about me that much but it was nice of you to check on me and thank you to Proto. You should get back to bed Eve. Night." She left the room for hers and I drifted back into my dream.

_I had regained conciseness and was looking into a mirror to see that much of my body had changed. I was wearing some white shorts and a white t-shirt and I was still strapped into the same metal operating table but I could clearly see that both of my legs were metallic along with my right arm and the right side of my head. I looked around with my eyes when I spotted a feint figure of Proto and I tried to talk to her but no words came out and I could see that it was the same for her when two Nasods came into the room and undid the bindings on my arms and legs letting me free and escorted me to a room where they outfitted my mechanical arms, legs, and face with fake skin that resembled human tissue before bringing me to the throne room._

_The large gold and silver doors swung open to the throne room and I could see Eve sitting on her throne with two Nasods at her sides. One of them i could make out as Oberon but the other Nasod was different. There was also another Nasod that only had it's head on a screen that was next to Eve and it looked at me._

"_Nasod King, this is the the subject that you wanted to see?"_

"_Why have you brought this human here!? Get him out!"_

"_So it's done better than I thought. It even fooled our Queen." The voice sounded from the monitor._

'_Wait... That voice! I know it any were. So it was the Nasod King that's been speaking to me through my dreams!'_

"_Fooled me?" I snapped back to the scene and I could see that Eve was quite confused but she kept a straight face when my body started to move on its own. My left arm reached up reached up to my right shoulder before pulling at the fake skin ripping it off to have my metallic one show underneath and I saw that she had raised an eyebrow while resting her head on her hand._

"_So this is the project that I've heard you talk about?"_

"_This is it my Queen. Soon, the others will be ready and they will be trained for combat. Once training is over, the permanent layer of the skin will be in placed. Please take him away and strip the rest of the skin off before putting him with the others."_

"_Yes my lord." I left with the guards back to the same lab and had the rest of the skin pulled off and thrown away before I found myself back in the same celled area. I walked with the guard and I could hear the others crawl away from the bars but when I came into view I heard some of them gasp as they saw that I was alive. They locked me in the cell across from the others and they could see the full extent of my changes from my legs, arms, and head. I sat in the back corner of the cell and I could see the other crowding the the bars to take a look at me and I could see my sister sank to her knee and looked devastated as she saw what they done to me before going to the back of the cell. I stayed silent the whole time just sitting there when the door opened once again and the rest of them were taken for their conversions._

I then woke up and I felt a tear run down my cheek. I rubbed my eyes before sitting up in my bed when Proto appeared sitting next to me.

"So, you sister is still out there but I saw the whole thing. You had a rough life and everything that happened to you was something that wasn't under your control so don't beat yourself over the head all right?" I nodded and got up to take a shower and had taken my shirt off when I though up something.

"Hey, a Proto. You think you might be out of my head for a while?"

"Why's that?"

"Well I'm going to be taking a shower and your in my head and well..."

"Would it be awkward for you?"

"Yeah kind of." I rubbed the back of my head and blushed a bit.

"Fine, I will leave but I will be back." She then left and I undressed completely before taking a shower. Drying off and pulling on a pair of pants and a white T-shirt, I went down stairs for breakfast. I sat at the table and everything was served out and everyone was digging in chatting with each other but I only rested my head on my hand and picked at my scrabbled eggs.

"Hey, everything all right there?" I looked up to address Elswords question.

"Oh, it's nothing really. I was just thinking of something that's all."

"All right, if you insist."

"So, what's todays mission?"

"Well from what Chi and I been scouting, we've confirmed that our next target to hit will be the Nasod Foundry. Destroying that will cease the production of any more Nasod battle units but who knows how many of them are in reserve."

"Though taking out the factory will be one step closer to finding Ruben's El stone." Elsword said happily. "That settles it, pack your gear for we are heading out to take out that Nasod Foundry!"

I took one bite of my eggs before pushing back and heading upstairs to see Proto sitting on my bed waiting for me.

"So, mission time?" I stepped into my armor before having it cover my legs and pull on my glove before turning to her.

"Yep, it's mission time." I pull on my jacket and secure my sword sheath and rifle holster on my back before locking my visor in place. "I'm ready, lets go." I turn around for the door but was stopped when Proto put her hand on my shoulder.

"Blaze, I know something is going on inside of your mind and all I want to know if it will interfere with your fighting." I turned around and faced her with a smile.

"It's nothing I will be fine. It's just something that will play out during the mission." Proto and I joined the others and we made our way to the Nasod Foundry.

I wait behind the bush waiting for the signal and I have my scope zeroed on the Nasod Cannon Guard and the Assault Nasod. I take a quick glance on the surrounding area to have Rena's figure outlined on my HUD in some other concealed position also in wait for the same one. I skim the surrounding vegetation to have the other ID tags and outlines pop up near the entrance when Proto popped up on the HUD.

"All right Blaze, it's show time." I look across to Renas position and gave the signal before going back to my scope. I put my crosshair on the Nasod Cannon Guard before pulling the trigger. The bullet impacted the target shearing off a good portion of the Cannon Guards head before having three green arrows impale them selves into its chest. I shifted over to the Assault Nasod to see that a few arrows had penetrated him and I sent two more rounds to finish him off when a Nasod Bladder came out of no were and went inside with the metal door locking and an alarm sounded.

"So much for the element of surprise." I came out of my cover to join up with the others who were standing in front of the sealed door.

"Well that plan really back fired." Chi said while twirling her scythe around.

"These doors are also magnetically sealed as well so prying them open is not an option." Eve said before she scowled. "The doors systems aren't responding to any of my commands either."

"Well that only leaves one option left," Chung loaded a few more rounds in his cannon and stood in front of the door. "We blast it open." We all hugged the wall on either sides of the door as Chung raised his cannon.

"Shooting Star!" Multiple missiles were shot out of his cannon and flew towards the door and impacted it with a large explosion. The door was blown inward and smoke filled the entrance.

"Well that was easy." Everyone left the wall to go through the entrance with Chung in the lead when an object rolled under the smoke screen.

"What th- GRENADE! GET DO-" The grenade exploded stunning him when a laser pierced through the smoke screen aimed at him. Chi swung her scythe upward deflecting the shot when more came through the screen.

"Over Shield!" My shield got longer and wider as I stepped in front of Chung to block the lasers as Oberon hauled Eve out of harms way and the others rolled up to the wall. Chi pulled Chung out of the way just as cracks formed around the outer edges of my shield and a few bits chipped off. Rolling to the left as my shield failed and one of the laser shots caught my leg but bounced off harmlessly.

'_Thank god for this armor.'_ I thought.

"And I thought that having the door sealed was bad but this is worse!" Chi yelled over to us. Oberon raised his blades ready to charge in but Eve motioned with her hand to not go.

"_Hey Blaze, do I need to come out for some support?" _Proto reappeared on the screen and I extended my mask before placing a fresh mag into my gun.

"_No need. I need you here to help with the targeting system but I will call when I need you out in the field."_ Chung was shaking off the effects of the stun grenade and the hail of laser shots still shot through the entrance. Taking a quick peak around the corner to see multiple Shielded Nasods with Assault Nasods coming up behind them. Pulling back as one a shot impacted right in front of my head a plan formulated in my head.

"Hey Chung, you good enough to pull of a Heavy Railgun?"

"I'm good."

"Aisha, after Chung fires off his Heavy Railgun, can you follow up with a Plasma Cutter?"

"Sure."

"Once those two attacks are cleared charge in and attack." I got nods in return before I turned to Rena.

"You and me are going to take out those Nasod Cannon Guards. Chung Aisha, start your attack as we take out those shooters."

"_You ready Proto?"_

"_Let the carnage begin!"_ I sucked in a breath of air before leaning out to the side and started shooting. Rena had also slid out of and started sending arrow after arrow down range and the Nasod Cannon Guards started to fall one by one when Chung rolled out behind me.

"Heavy Railgun!" I brought his Destroyer up onto his shoulder firing off a large cannon round sending the assault drones and shielded Nasod off to the side.

"Plasma Cutter!" A red hot plasma beam shot out creating a huge hole in their defense when I slipped my M14 back into its holster and drew my sword and charged in with the rest.

"_On your right!"_ I twisted to me left as one of the assault drones tried to stab me. Grabbing the arm that it shoved at me, I brought up my right arm with its blade extended cutting its arm clean off. Using the momentum that I built from pulling the arm as the blade cut through it, I spun around to shove its own blade in its head. Running with the others as we cut through the Nasod forces when we came up on the manufacturing line. Mechanical arms were moving in synchronized with the others to build the Nasods.

"So this is where the magic happens." We all marvel at the shear size of the manufacturing line but we still had a mission to do.

"So, what next?" Chung asked.

"Well that's an easy thing to do," Chi swung her elbow into a control panel smashing it before swinging her scythe through one of the machines to have it spark and explode. "Break some things and have fun doing so." She said sad sadistically before laughing and continue on her destructive path.

"Some girl friend you got there Chung." I nudged him with my shoulder.

"Oh shut up." He ran ahead to join Chi in her destruction and the rest of us soon followed. I slashed my sword through one of the machines when one of those Assault Nasods jumped me from behind. I powered up my shield and raised it blocking the attack before rearing my fist back and swinging it in an upper cut. It impacted its chest armor crumpling it and it kept on going through its power core and out the other side. Withdrawing my arm from it, it fell to the ground with a new hole sparking hole when Proto came back again.

"_Blaze, you forgot to extend your blade."_

"_Uhh yeah... I still haven't gotten used to the arm blade yet. But the punch did feel good."_ I found myself destroying another machine with Raven and Chi when Chung burst out of the machine and into the wall behind us.

"Chung!" Chi ran over to his aid and Raven and I turned around to see the perpetrator through the hole. Everything seemed to stand still as we all looked at the new enemy when it made the first move. It charged at Elsword and swung his sword at him and he parried the swing when it changed course and went after Rena. She fired a few arrows it before drawing Erendil to parry off a strike. Raven and I charged him but his attacks kept us at distance.

"Wait, this fighting technique."

"His attack techniques are exactly like mine!"

"They built another copy of Raven!" Oberon was engaging his when he jumped over him and sent a spinning fume of fire at us knocking Eve, Raven and myself into an indent of the room when we started the floor started to move downwards.

"What the." The floor kept on lowering when the Nasod version of Raven jumped on with us. Oberon was behind up but he was just to late as the elevator descended down into the floor and a metal door closed sealing us in with the Crow Rider.

"Well if it isn't the inferior version of myself." A robotic voice of Ravens came out.

"You're the inferior Raven here pale." Raven voice had venom in it as he glared at the replica of himself.

"Raven? I don't go by that name anymore. Now, I'm Crow Rider and you shall fall to my blade!" Crow Rider charged the two of us and Raven met him head on. Their swords clashed with each other when Crow Rider slashed low causing Raven to jump back.

"Inferno Blade!" Both of my sword and blade ignited and the imprints in my eyes started to glow before charging I charged at him. I swung my sword at him and he blocked it with his own before I swung upwards with my other arm cutting into his chest. He jumped back wards before teleporting away.

"I need to regenerate. Go my minions and deal with them." 4 mini versions of Crow Rider then appeared. One of them jumped up at Eve and she sent both Moby and Reby at it dazing him before delivering a hearty slap to his face turning him around to face Raven who had engaged the other Crow Rider and switched over to him. Me on the other hand was dealing with the other two Crow Rider droids. I parried one of their blows and forced to jump back as the other one comes up with its claw. The two of them then brought their swords down at the same time and I raised both my sword and blade locking in a battle of strength when the two of them raised their hands for an attack.

"Yeah Proto, I would like your help about now!" She appeared behind the two Crow Riders with her eyes glowing. I physically sweat dropped as I saw her like that and only felt bad for the drone that she picks to fight. She reached down grabbing the one on my left by its neck before pulling back hard. The other one looked to the side wondering what happened to its partner when I planted my heel in its face. It reeled around and glared at me as I spun my sword around before grabbing it again in a reversed grip before charging it. It tried to punch me with its fist but I easily side stepped the attack while bringing my blade upwards cutting off its arm. Wires hung out and sparked as it frantically waved its sword at me and I dodged the attacks easily before finishing it off. I look over to see that Eve was standing on top of a beaten Crows rider looking down in disgust with Moby and Reby flying at her side and Raven had finished off his target while Proto was hovering around the last one which had both of its legs and its attack claw ripped off and was trying to pull itself away from her.

"Jeez Proto just put it out of its misery." She looked at me with a small sad expression before sending a Nasod spear into it destroying it.

"You just had to ruin my fun." I only shivered at her definition of 'fun.'

"Well that was only an appetizer and the main course is on its way." The real Crow Rider then teleported back to us and looked down at the remains of the mini versions of himself with distaste.

"So much for them taking care of you. I guess I have to do the rest myself." He jumped at swinging his sword and I raised my own up to block it. He interlocked our swords together when he raised his claw and pointed it at me to send a spinning fume of fire at my. I jumped back to avoid it partially as it singed the edge of my jacket and he took a wild slash at as I jumped catching my right arm. I grit my teeth at the pain as the cut in my arm sparked. Proto then sent out multiple spears after Crow Rider forcing him back into Eve who slapped him hard in the face. Spinning around from the slap into Raven who brought his sword down lopping off the Nasods head. The new hole in its body sparked before crumpling over with a clunk and sparked even more. Proto was at my side taking a scan on my arm before motioning for Eve to come over.

"It's not as bad as it looks but you do need to be more careful. Any deeper and I wouldn't be able to help you with the tools I have. Though we will have to go back up to Oberon and the others in order to make the repairs." I nodded when I looked past her to see some light start to come through the wall as the elevator went down further until a windowed view of the area was present. Eve got up and quickly went up to the glass with some urgency and Proto followed. I looked around to see a giant silo in the center with multiple cable and catwalks connecting to it along with one large main corridor that connects to this elevator and revolves around the central silo.

"We're here."

"What?"

"We're here. This is were we are supposed to go, the Nasod core." Eve kept facing towards the giant core as her own thoughts went through her mind.

"Hey, do you think you override the elevator controls so we don't go down and meet who ever is down there with the four of us? I would feel a LOT better if we had the rest of the gang here and to also get repaired." She nodded and pulled up her console. Typing a few things in, the elevator stopped its descent and started its way back up but at a much faster speed.

Reaching the top, we were greeted by a happy Oberon and a relieved faces. I sat down on a table as Oberon started to go to work on my arm when my stomach growled. It was lunch time and all that this fighting had worked up my appetite. I sat through as Oberon worked on reconnecting some cut circuits and repairing any other damage that he found. Finishing I hopped off the table thanking him before going over to the cooking fire that Rena apparently made when we disappeared down the elevator shaft and I took the soup that she's created thankfully.

"So, were did that elevator lead you to?" Chi asked curiously.

"Our next objective, the Nasod Core."

"Wait what!? The core is right below us?"

"Yep, it is." I then turned towards Chung asking, "Hey Chung, you good enough to continue on?" He rolled his shoulders before replying.

"I've taken worse hits before so I'm ready for some more action."

"All right then, it's settled. Once we're done with lunch here, we're heading down to the core."

* * *

_**Crow Rider's POV**_:

My systems come back online and my visuals sensors activate as I step outside the pod I was in when a familiar voice sounded behind me.

"You should be lucky Crow Rider that we had one more Crow Rider unit left to transfer our data to."

"Humph, they just got lucky that's all."

"Lucky my ass, you got beaten hard by those four." I turned around to see one of the twins, Leviathan, behind me and I got ticked off my his comment.

"Hey I wouldn't be talking Leviathan. The last that I remember is that you and your brother Ignis were also trashed by those guys too. Hell even your parts were used to create the traitor a new body guard."

"At least we did more damage to the group than you did." Ignis then came out of the shadows behind Leviathan and I was about to say something when the Kings voice boomed over us.

"Silence you fools! Or I will dismantle the three of you and make a toaster, freezer, and a sword rack out of the spare parts!" That silenced all of us and we listened to his commands.

"Now that they've found a way to the core, I'm stationing each one of you at a different area to protect the core area but there will be another member that will join the team."

"Now who would that be!?"

"That would be me." A feminine voice sounded behind us and we all turned to see a girl walk out of the shadows and we watched her with distaste.

"You're adding _**her **_to the group?" Venom laced my words as the three of us glared at her.

"She's more powerful than the three of you and she will be following the group around once their down in the core. Speaking of which the elevator is on the move. All units, form up in a defensive perimeter around the core and the three different entrances to here. Crow Rider, Ignis, and Leviathan, you have your orders move out!" The three of us turned to leave and I glanced back to see that she was still there talking to the King before leaving as well.

'_I will get my revenge on those people and I'm not letting her take the glory in killing them!'_

* * *

**Chung and Anon: *Mortified*  
**

**Proto: What's with those two?**

**Aisha: Anon just found out that DCxIP is a legit pairing in Elsword.**

**Chung: But...**

**Anon: How can you...**

**Chung: Date myself?**

**Crow Rider: YES! YOU GAVE ME A POV!**

**?: And I've been introduced!**

**Anon: ! YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE!**

**Review and you'll get a muffin :D Lets just hope the gophers haven't found those yet.**


	13. Chapter 13 Recovery

_**?'s POV:**_

I look on through the door of my elevated position over the core as the elevator descends. I peer through the glass to see the 9 people that have been causing all this trouble and I eyed one. He looked up at me but just starred aimlessly at the area as if he was searching for something and I only smiled as I backed into the shadows.

'_This will be fun.'_ I thought. When I was out of view I turned around and headed to my defensive position.

* * *

_**Blaze's POV:**_

I couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching us and I swear I saw a figure of a girl when I looked up. Shaking my thoughts off as we neared the bottom, I take inventory at my remaining ammo reserves to find that it was lower than what I would like, but enough to get done with the mission. I pull out my rifle and did I quick sweep over for anything that might cause it to malfunction when Proto came up behind me.

"So how's out little creations holding up?"

"They're both doing very well and are holding up nicely."

"Well that's good to hear. Do you still need me here or should I go back to your systems?"

"You can go back. I'll call when I need you out." She disappeared and I got up from my kneeling position as we neared the bottom.

"So, how thick to you think their resistance will be?" Chung asked while spinning his Silver Shooter.

"This is the Nasod Core so be ready for many troops to fight." The windowed view of the core went away as the elevator slowed to a stop and opened large steel doors revealing a huge amount of Nasod waiting for us.

"This won't be easy." Rena said as she got a green arrow ready.

"Since when did we ever say it was going to be easy? Shadow Spike!" Multiple spikes shot out of Chi's shadow destroying a line of Nasod guards before charging into the fray with Elsword and Raven close behind. Rena let out a volley of green arrows into a group of Nasod Cannon Guards before pulling out Erendil and followed Raven into the hole that the three created.

"Shooting Star!" Missiles started flying around the area impacting along the platform sending Nasods flying off the edge and tried to go for the opening but it was filled up again with other Nasod.

"Genocide Ripper." Oberon flew forward with his swords ready cutting open the hole again that the rest of us charged through. Proto kept up throwing up new targets for me to shoot at when three Nasod Bladders popped up and started flying towards us blades spinning. I shot the one farthest to the right causing it to careen into the middle one destroying them both and I finished off the last one causing it to explode sending one of it's blades at me. It grazed my arm and I cringed at the cut but I ignored it moving forward with the rest. Making out way to the other side of the catwalk, we destroyed all the Nasod units that have been in the area when we entered a wide hallway with three separate corridors.

"So, which one should we take?" We all from one corridor to another deciding which route to take when Eve pipped up.

"They all could lead to the same location while some might lead to it or maybe even one leads to it. But there's only one way to find out were each of them leads and I think we should divide up the team." Everyone nodded in agreement and Eve started to assign everyone to a side.

"Elsword, Aisha, you're with Oberon and I down the center. Chi, I want you to go with Raven and Rena down the left side and that leaves Chung, Blaze, and Proto for the right side." Everyone started to shuffle around, heading off down their assigned corridor and I waited for Chung who was with Chi at the center. They were talking and I was to far to make out the words but I could guess what it might be about after I saw him kiss her and jogged over to me. I saw that she was blushing and a bit shocked before she turned around to go with Rena and Raven.

"So, you ready lover boy?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh don't act like no one else saw that kiss." I grinned at him and he only rolled his eyes.

"Oh shut up." He said before jogging off down the right. I snickered and went along with him down the empty corridor.

* * *

_**Chi's POV:**_

I was still blushing slightly between the exchange with Chung.

'_I've kissed him before when we were along but never when we were around the others.'_ I thought when I heard Zentai snickering.

"_What's so funny?"_

"_Looks like someone is a bit love shy in public~." _She slyly said.

"_Shut it Moon."_

"_But Chi, all she is saying is the truth."_ Sun joined in.

"_Great, you're in it too? Agh, the hell with you two."_ I could hear them laughing and I only sighed.

"Something wrong Chi?" I looked up at Rena and shook my head and she only shrugged. "If you insist."

We reached the end of the corridor to find ourselves in a large room filled with Nasod going from the assault drones, to Bladders, ice, cannon, and shield guards.

"Good something to fight. I was beginning to think that this was getting to easy!" I spun Zentai around and it's golden blade glinted in the light before slamming the hilt of it into the ground. "Soul Splicer!"

Demon energy coursed through my hand into the scythe making it grow large and I grinned demonically. "This is going to be fun." Charging the group with my scythe in hand, I spin around to deliver an upper slash cutting through a good amount of Nasods while launching a few more into the air to see them get skewered by multiple green arrows and explode. Stabbing the the blade through a Type-Ice Nasod, I tried to remove it to find that it was stuck and I had to side step a slash from an assault Nasods. Pulling out my Dark Elf dagger and bringing it down on the Type-W9's head, I gave my scythe one last tug pulling it free from the destroyed body. Another Type-W9 tried to swipe at me but Raven cut it down and more Bladders fell from the barrage of green arrows.

We continued battling through the onslaught of Nasods and made it over the bride connecting to another large room when something fell down next to me.

"Maximum Cannon!" I had no time to dodge the attack and could only get out a few words before the fire ball struck

"Mirage." The fire ball struck me and I teleported away into above a pile of destroyed Nasod drones. Falling on top of them, I cursed as a stray shard cut my arm leaving a long gash on my arm. I tried to stand but a sharp pain from my leg kept me from standing and I couldn't see what it was since I was invisible.

"_Chi, are you all right?" _Zentai sounded inside of me.

"_I can't tell right now but there is defiantly some sort of damage on my leg and there's a large gash on my arm from that teleport. God, some times I just hate where that ability teleports me." _ The invisibility worn off and I saw the full extent of my injuries on my leg. A part of my azure dress was burnt off leaving a black brittle edge to it along with a good portion of my capris. In the center of the burnt clothing was a good sized burn from the attack. I cringed as I peaked around the side of the destroyed Nasod to see that Raven and Rena had engaged my attackers and I was surprised that it was Crow Rider. Trying to get up again, I plumped back down due to my leg.

"_You can't move in your current condition. You'll have to use Reapers Serenade if you still want to be ready for more fighting."_

"Reapers Serenade." I started to sing quietly and I could feel my wounds start to seal up and heal. Stoping the song as I started to feel dizzy, I inspect my wounds to see what had healed. The burn on my leg was not as severe and is much smaller than what it was before but there still was a burn there. The wound on my arm had closed some and wasn't as deep but it still bled and needed some medical attention. I heard a crunch and screech of metal on metal and looked around again to see that Rena slicing Crow Riders Nasod arm off and he jumped backwards in my direction with his back to me.

'_I usually don't do this but I think this might work.'_ Pulling out my Dark Elf knife out of its sheath, I grab the bottom of the hilt between my thumb and index finger and threw it at Crow Rider. The knife flew true and impaled itself into the back of his head giving Raven time to rush up and cut him in half. The exposed wires sparked every were and I summoned Zentai to my hand to help me stand up and Raven and Rena ran over to me.

"Chi! There you are. I thought you were dead when I didn't see you any were."

"Oh, your hurt. Please sit and let me tend to your wounds." I sat down on top of a squarish pile of Nasod parts while Rena got out her supplies to treat me. I winced a bit as she applied a disinfectant onto my leg and arm and finished it off with a wrapping of gauss before tending to her own and Ravens gashes that they've got from combat.

'_I wonder how the others are doing right about now.'_

* * *

_**Eve's POV:**_

I jump back as multiple ice spikes shoot out of the ground.

'_So the Nasod King rebuilt Ignis and Leviathan?' _Using Moby and Reby, I flew up higher and glided back down as Oberon returned to my side. Both Elsword and Aisha were busy engaging Ignis which left Leviathan to Oberon and Myself.

"You think you can defeat me with your pet butler Oberon? What a joke." He then raised his arm summoning multiple ice shards to rain down at me. Sending Moby and Reby to destroy some of them, Oberon swung his swords destroying the others.

"Oberon, I've got a plan worked up. Do you think you can keep him occupied for a bit?" He nodded and ran towards Leviathan swords at the ready and they clashed. Bringing up my console, I started to tap a few keys diverting the energy from some of my systems into an Electronball that I've made up. Energy kept on collecting into the ball until it reached maxed capacity.

"Oberon, jump! Mega Electronball!" He jumped as I sent the ball of energy at Leviathan and it collided with him leaving an opening for Oberon to attack. Morphing Moby and Reby into spears, I sent them into his arms as Oberon ran up for the attack.

"Finish him." I said in a solum tone. Oberon delivered two upper slashes before multiple spinning downward ones crippling Leviathan. Elsword and Aisha had also just finished off Ignis and now the entrance that the two brothers had blocked was now open for us to continue.

"That could have gone better." Elsword said through a piece of cloth as he tied a piece of cloth around a cut on his arm.

"Lets keep on going. I just hope the others are making good progress too."

* * *

_**Blaze's POV:**_

"Man this is to easy. We've barley ran into any extremely large Nasod forces yet!" Chung said excitedly.

"That may be but still, keep your guard up." I look up at the ceiling to see that it had multiple crevices, pipes, and many shadows for someone, or something, to hide. For a second, I thought that I saw something move up there but I guess it was nothing.

"Jeez, I thought that having almost no Nasod resistance would bring a good feeling but this is only putting me on edge." I looked on ahead when something caught my attention in top of some pipes. When I saw something glint were I was looking, I threw up my left arm and activated the shield just in time as I heard a gun shot and my arm rattled from the impact of the bullet. Still looking up at the same area, I swear I saw a figure of a girl with a long braid get up and moving out of it.

"Thanks man." Chung and I stood at attention and Proto was on my screen looking as well when another round went off striking Chung in the shoulder. I real around and shot in the area that the shot came from and I thought I saw some red hair flash in the light.

"Hey, you all right?" Leaning down with my rifle raised, I could see that a piece of his armor was missing were the shot landed and the were the bullet impacted left black soot on his white armor.

"Hurts like hell and feels like I just hit full in the shoulder by an Ent, but I'm fine." I looked around at attention and we can hear the tapping of the figures foot steps running around on the metal. When it stopped we tensed up and scanned around waiting for the shot to go off when it did. I fell onto my back as the impact of the bullet took one of my legs out from under me and pain shot through that leg. Inspecting it, I could see that the armor took the brunt of the force and was a mangled mess of metal, but other than that, it was just a glancing blow to my leg bellow.

"Call me crazy, but I think our perpetrator is a girl." I got up and turned to Chung who had a serious face on and what he said only confirmed my previous thoughts.

"Well were ever she is, she's toying with us." Another shot went off this time hitting Chung in the gut and he kneeled down gripping the spot before coughing up some blood.

"Thank the Lady El for this armor or it would be much worse." He said while wiping away some blood from his mouth when another bullet hit him in the back and he fell sideways to the ground.

"Chung!" Running over to him, I knelt down next to him to see that he was still breathing and was only knocked out.

"Proto, can you track her movements?"

"_That's what I've been doing so far but I can't. Plus the amount of noise made and the amount of damage that is being dealt shows that she isn't using any commonly used rifle. So be aware."_ I nodded and stood ready scanning around for I heard a voice echo through the place.

"Unit Alpha-01, part of Project: Masquerade, a traitor to the Nasod kingdom!" I reeled around as she fell from the ceiling with her two blades raised up to strike me down. I bring up my shield just in time as she landed her blow directly on the shield. My left arm nearly buckled from the force of the impact and left it a bit numb. Jumping back and placing my rifle back in its holster, I bring out my sword and extend my arm blade ready for combat. With her in the light, I can clearly see what she looked like. She has a pair of black lensed, yellow framed, sports sunglasses and has her hair pulled back into a long braid that goes halfway down her back. I can see that she is wearing a black sleeveless shirt under a white and grey combat vest. She had grey pants that had back on the backs of the knee section along with an ammo pouch on the lower part of her right leg and one on her left thigh. She also has a very large rifle that is slung over her back. On her arms were sword blades that were attached to the underside of her arms with their hilts facing up.

I braced myself as I charged towards her and our swords clash together. I sung and she blocked it, she swung at me and I blocked it. It went on like that and I suffered a large cut on my arm from one of her hits and I landed a few hits but only scratching the surface of her own armor. We locked swords again but this time she seemed a bit distant before pushing me back with a kick and jumped back into the shadows of the ceiling and disappeared. I huffed from the exertion of combat and flinched as the adrenaline leave my system and pain emanates from my arm. I re-sheath my sword painfully and retract my blade back into my arm and walked over to Chung.

"Hey, Proto, do you think you can come out and help me with this?" She then appeared next to me and looked furious.

"Why didn't you let me come out and fight with you?" She placed her hands on her hips as she looked at me. I flipped up my visor and retracted my face mask as I sighed.

"Because I didn't want you to interfere with that battle." She pulled out a sterilized piece of cloth and started to wrap my arm with it.

"But why did you do it."

"Because I wanted to try to confirm something but I didn't have enough time with her to do so that's all." Chung then groaned and we both turned to him. "How ya feeling there buddy?"

"I feel like I just got the shit beaten out of me." He coughed up some more blood and spat to the side. "God those bullets will leave a huge bruise after this is over." He groaned as he tried to get up but fell back down.

"You shouldn't move Chung." Proto insisted.

"Give me a second, my suits pain killers should kick in soon along with the restoration system." A minute later we were moving again slowly at first but we got back to our normal pace and we didn't run into any other resistance. Reaching the end of the room, we came to a three room which had two other entrances connected to it and sure enough, I could see Eve, Aisha, and Chung come out of the middle one as we made it out of ours. I waved to them and Chung waved weakly as the pain killers hadn't taken full effect yet. They waved back and we met in the middle as Chi, Raven, and Rena came out of theirs.

"Oh my god, what happened with you and Chung!? It looked like you went through an army."

"We sort of did. Though it was a one man army. Or, should I say a one woman army." I scratched the back of my head as I explained that we had met little Nasod resistance until we were ambushed by the red haired girl but I didn't tell them my suspicion over her.

"Jeez, what the heck did she use to deal this much damage to the two of you?" Chi added. "I mean look at the size the the holes in Chung's' armor!" She pointed to the one in his shoulder and everyone looked at it bewildered.

"I'm not sure what she was using but all I know is that she wasn't shooting to kill. She was only toying with us for some reason." I took a gulp from a water skin and a bit out of a hard tart to replenish my energy.

Taking a short break to recuperate some of out energy, we head off down adjacent hallway until we found ourselves riding a floating platform into the core itself. As we passed through into the core, we all were blinded by the light coming from the inside until we adjusted to it and found ourselves in the core itself with a ginormous Nasod who stood waiting for us.

"Looks like the nine of you have made it down to me and Ignis and the others have been destroyed."

"Why are you doing this! You know what the humans have done in the past and if they find out that the Nasods are back and are a threat to them, they will come and destroy the kingdom again! I never wanted the Nasods to be a threat to everyone else and I never wanted that war." Eve shouted. She was furious now and once Eve gets like that, there's very little that will quell her.

"Because humans are a threat to us, they're aggressive, and they're inferior to the Nasods. You should kno-"

"I don't know what you're talking about. My friends may be aggressive at some points, but they're mostly kind and caring. They only act like that when provoked and you are just waking away at the hornets nest. When I went into that pod to recreate the Nasod kingdom, I created you to run things and was I wrong in doing that. First you send me away once you could create another power source to run the kingdom, then you strip me of my rank and power, and then you start terrorizing the natives of this place!"

"And I didn't want to do any of that but I had to." Eve was taken back by what he said. "I'm sorry that I did that but if you were here, non of this would have happened. I sent you away for your own protection and-"

"And nothing! You did this all for your own need, the need for war. That's what you were good at, control what happens with the war effort. I never wanted to be apart of that fight and you knew that I would stop you from doing all of this and the things that you've done in the past is not exceptionable. What you did to Blaze and the others ar-"

"Enough!" The Kings voice boomed and Eve was silent. "The way you're talking and acting only proves that you aren't worthy of being on the throne but to be exterminated!" The Nasod King brought his hand up in a fist and started to bring it down on top of us and we all jumped out of the way.

"Eve! Is there anyway of hurting this guy!?" Raven yelled over the loud boom of the hand crashing into the platform.

"Go after those El power cores! Destroy them all should bring up the main one!" Eve yelled back and we all understood what to do. Raven ran over to destroy one of the power cores when something exploded in front of him causing him to stop. We all looked were the gunshot had come from and Chung's and my own narrowed as we saw who had caused the explosion.

"It's _**her**_." Chung's words were laced with venom as she saw her and she only looked down at us with her huge rifle in hand.

"Who the heck are you!?" I yelled at her and she only looked down at me disappointingly.

"You really don't know Alpha-01? Fine, I'll show you who I am." Her hand went up to take off her glasses and my eyes went wide as she did so.

'_No... I couldn't be.' _She pulled of her glasses with her eyes closed and placed them in her pants pocket before opening them at me.

"No, it can't be!" She looked at me with her fiery red eyes and smirked. I was lost in thought as she threw her rifle onto her back and flipping out her dual swords before jumping down at me.

"_Blaze move!"_ Proto's voice snapped me back to reality and I jumped out of the way extending my own blade and pulling out my sword while extending my mask and flipping down my visor.

"Proto, you can come out and help destroy those power cores. Leave her to me." Proto appeared and went for one of the cores and the girl tried to attack her but I blocked her attack.

"So, you do know who I am right Alpha-01?"

"Stop calling me that!" I started to swing my swords at her and she blocked them and did the same with me. We danced back and forth and I could see that that the last power core was being attacked when she kicked me away as the Nasod King brought down his fist on our location. She jumped away harmlessly but that kick only sent me to the rim of his hand and it crushed me right leg. Screaming in pain, the Nasod King lifted his hand again to bring down on top of me when Raven jumped down picking me up and bringing me out of harms way. I look down on my leg to see that the armor was crushed beyond recognition and I could barley move it. My leg sparked here and there with electricity and the pain was unbelievable. I grit my teeth and squeezed my eyes shut at the pain and forcefully opened them to see that the last power core was destroyed and the final main one had risen to display Rubens stolen El stone powering it.

Elsword, Aisha, and Rena went after the main one to free the El stone while the rest went after the other girl.

"Don't, don't hurt her!" I yelled through gritted teeth.

"What? Why? She's trying to kill us."

"Please, just... don't." I pull out my rifle to try and be productive when I saw multiple homing missile start flying around. I target them all and open fire destroying most of them while the others slashed at them destroying them as well. I was starting to lose consciousness when the final missile was destroyed and I fumbled with putting my rifle away. The last thing that I saw before I went under was that Chung managed to knock the girl out and I smiled before I blacked out.

* * *

_**Proto's POV:**_

'_Good, the girls knocked out and so is Blaze. All that's left is to- Oh no.' _The Nasod King was starting to get desperate to get everyone away from the main core that she started to focus energy around the center of his chest with his hands as he charged up with an attack.

"Ever one, get behind some cover!" I yelled at them as I flew over to Blaze's body. I look back to see that they've got the girl with them and they huddle behind the main core with Elsword and Aisha combining energy to create a shield around them.

'_No, there's not enough time to drag him over there.'_ I thought quickly before diving into his systems. Flipping through panel after panel, I came up on the one that controls his El energy shield and programed it to create a full body bubble shield but there wasn't a sufficient amount of energy produced by the El shard in his glove to do it. Adding my power to it, I power it up as the Nasod King fired his laser. I kept on adding power to keep the shield up but I could see that the strain was starting to get to it as cracks started to form around the edges and creep towards the center. I can feel the energy drain from me as I put more effort into it until the laser finally ended. Cutting the shield and popping back out I could see that the others were all right expect Elsword and Aisha had collapsed from their exertion too.

Raven and Rena cut the final tubes that connected the core to the Nasod King and he slammed his fist into the platform before having it fall away as he lost all his power. Eve then pulled up her console getting access to the whole Nasod kingdom and inserted herself back into power.

"That's it, I'm back in control of my kingdom and Rubens lost El is with us again." I smiled as I came out of his system and looked on at how happy Elsword is when I hear Blaze start to stir.

"Did we win?" I smiled and hugged him before looking into his eyes and replied.

"Yes, we won." I went in and kissed him deeply before pulling away. "I've deactivated your pain signals from your leg but I couldn't get them all off." He winced as he tried to stand up.

"It's all right, I can take it but can you help me up?" Pulling him up and draping his arm over my shoulder for support, we walked over to the others.

"So Eve, you've got back you control of the Nasod Kingdom?" She nodded her head and I smiled. "Since I've got nothing to go back to, do you think I can join the kingdom?" She was surprised at me request before nodding her head.

"Of course you can. Through your actions to help me bring back order to my kingdom, I shall name you one of my own personal guardians of the Nasod Kingdom. You'll accompany me on adventures that go outside the kingdom yet still have the freedom as you have now."

"Thank you Queen Eve." I nodded my head in thanks but she only put her head up.

"Please, just call me Eve when around friends and alone but with others, you may address me as Queen." I smiled and let Oberon take over in supporting Blaze as they both are about the same height when the red headed girl started to stir. She folded back her blades as she started to sit up and placed her hand on her head groaning. She then looked up at all the eyes that were staring at her and she was a bit confused.

"Who are you people?" She asked.

"There friends." Her eyes widened as Blaze spoke and the other parted to give room for Oberon and Blaze to get through. She placed her hand over her mouth as she saw him and Blaze gave a light smile at her. She got up and took a few steps towards him still wide eyed.

"Is it you..."

"It's me." She then ran up to him and hugged him and started to cry. With his spare arm he wrapped it around her comforting her and everyone, including myself, looked at the two a bit confused. After a minute of crying she stopped and wiped her eyes before turning to everyone else who just looked at the two of them.

"Blaze, can you explain what's going on?"

"Blaze? How do they know your name?"

"Ah, yeah. Long story but to cut to the chase, everyone, I would like you to meet my sister, Ember." Everyone was shocked at what he said and looked from him to her and back again.

"Though why does she have Nasod parts?"

"Well, you might know me better as Unit Alpha-02 Queen Eve." She nodded her head at Eve and Eve was taken back.

"So the two of you were brother and sister... My hate for the Nasod King just grew even more and I'm glad he's dead."

* * *

_**Blaze's POV:**_

"Blaze, you've gotten older since I last say you." I smiled at her as a thought occurred.

"Since you just gotten activated in the past month... That means I'm older than you. I guess you're going to have to start calling me older brother instead of the other way around." She punched my arm playfully and I winced a little and I turned to Eve.

"You think you can also let her in?"

"Of course."

"Thank you Eve."

"I hate to interrupt the reunion but how are we going to get the El stone out of here? We aren't strong enough to haul this out of here not to mention we're no in the greatest condition as well." Elsword asked.

"I've got that covered. In the mean time lets get back to the Ponggo's village." Two Nasod Healers then came out with a piece of cloth stretched between them creating a mini stretcher and Oberon placed me on it. We made out way out of the core area as some more Nasods came down to remove the rest of the core parts to reveal the El stone inside. We made out way to the elevator were two more Nasods with two other pods behind them were waiting at the elevator and worker drones were working cleaning up the Nasods that we've destroyed.

Making it back into the transporting entrance, we entered the Ponggo Village and people stared at us and the two other Nasod carrying the other pods. They would be in a panic if it wasn't for Proto going ahead to give warning about our approach with the friendly Nasods. We reached our house and the two large Nasod's could barley fit through the front door with the pods but they managed and placed them in both in my room which Ember and myself are going to share for the time being. Adel came over to the house as I was being brought upstairs to thank us for all of our hard work and the kitchen turned into a mini infirmary as Rena went to treat everyone else's wounds properly. Eve and Oberon had already been placed in their own pods to get repaired as well and she had dismissed the two large Nasods a while ago. With the help of Ember, I was in my pod and she dismissed the two Nasod Healers back to the kingdom as she stepped into her own.

"I'm happy to know that you're alive Ember."

"I'm happy to know that you're alive Blaze." I smiled once more knowing that today was a good day for all of us before I went under for the repairs.

* * *

**Chung: Two days after uploading chapter 12 and you finished chapter 13 in one day!?  
**

**Anon: What can I say, I got really motivated to write this chapter... great now for lots of copy and pasting to get Embers profile up.**

**Ember: And now I'm known.**

**Chibella: Well Ember, welcome to insanity!**


	14. Chapter 14 Reconstruction

**Anon: Under pressing circumstances... and Chi's insanity, I'm goign to need to take your muffins away...  
**

**Everyone: What? WHY!?**

**Anon: Because their explosive...**

**Everyone: *Throws the muffins away***

**Anon: Don't worry, you'll get a treat real soon.  
**

**Oh yeah, if you also can name the reference I made in this chapter, place your answer in the review and you'll get to kiss the character of your choosing ;D SO GOOD LUCK CONTESTANTS!**

* * *

_**Ember's POV:**_

"**REPAIRS COMPLETE. INITIATING UNITS ACTIVATION SEQUENCE NOW."**

I wake up to the monotone voice inside my pod and I was disoriented to were I was when I remembered what happened yesterday. I opened up the pods door and pulled myself up in a sitting position to stretch my arms out before climbing the rest of the way out. Looking over at the pod that Blaze was in, I could see that he will need more time before he is released from it. Through the glass I could see multiple mechanical arms and wires attach to his leg repairing the damage from his last battle. I placed my hand on the glass looking at him and smiled before leaving.

'_It's good to know that you're alive brother.'_ Going down stairs to meet the red headed boy, black haired man, and the green haired elf at the table chatting when they took notice to my presence.

"Well look who's awake." I walked over and took a seat and looked at the three of them curiously.

"Out of everyone in this group, I only recognize Oberon and Eve. So, who are you and the others exactly?"

"Oh how could we forget to introduce ourselves," the elf placed her hand over her chest and looked down for second before looking back up to introduce the others. "I'm Rena, the black haired one next to me is Raven, and the red head over there is Elsword."

"So who's the Pikachu, purple headed magician, and orangeade haired demon?"

* * *

_**Chi's POV:**_

I look up with my good eye and looked around me surprised when Chung looked up from his work.

"Something wrong Chi?"

"Not sure why, but I think someone called me a demon."

* * *

_**Ember's POV:**_

Rena laughed a little and Elsword was suppressing a laugh.

"The 'Pikachu' is named Chung, the 'half-demon' is Chi, and the purple head is Aisha."

"So were are they exactly?" She took a second to think up their locations before replying.

"Chung's down with Agatha, this towns blacksmith, to repair those holes in his armor, Chi's down with Chung, her boyfriend~, Eve and Oberon went back to the core to get preparations for the Nasod castle to be rebuilt and has also called back the Black Crow to pick up and bring back the El stone to Ruben. Aisha on the other hand is down at Amos's shop to see if there's any more books to research on her dark magic skills." I nodded my head as I started to commit their names to memory when another question popped up into my mind.

"So, how did the nine of you meet Blaze in the first place?"

"We actually didn't have all nine of us. It was originally composed of only Chung, Elsword, Raven, Aisha, Eve and I at the time. The six of us were just making our way over to the Elder village when we saw lots of smoke rising in the distance. Getting closer, we could make out the sounds of fighting followed up with a cry of pain. I ran ahead using the trees to speed up my progress when I came to the scene to see the lone figure of Blaze in the ground wounded with a bandit over him with his sword raised ready to kill him. I instantly brought up my bow killing his attacker when the others bursted through the tree line and charged through the ranks of the bandits when we reached him to find that he was unconscious. The other formed a defensive circle around him while I went in to try to stop his bleeding of his fresh wounds and some that reopened. Elsword squared off with the bandits leader, Banthus defeating him and the rest of the bandits, including himself, went off to retreat. The village was destroyed and we carried him the rest of the way to Elder to have him rest up. Later after he had woken up and joined us on missions after that, we made it to another following the El called Bethma where we found met Chi. At first, she helped out Chung when he got in trouble and again when he went out at night while we waited for it to be the right time for a mission. We met her again as we went after the boss of the lizardman and she was injured so we went in to save her."

"But, who's that other Nasod that I've seen around?" She cocked her head off to the side and raised an eyebrow for a second before she slapped herself on the head.

"Oh how could I've forgotten her."

"You mean Proto right Ember?" Elsword jumped into the conversation.

"So, her name is Proto? How exactly did you guys meet her?"

"Well she was the code that Evey used to become str-"

"Evey?" He blushed and a light pink tint came up to his cheeks as he scratched the back of his head.

"Aahh... It's sort of a nickname that I have for her."

"Since when did a Nasod have feelings? Not to mention loving a human." He only blushed harder.

"Well back to the story, she had activated the Q_PROTO-01 code to increase her power but after a while and Blaze got injured again, to reveal that he is a Nasod, Eve had transferred her over to make up Blaze's systems. And if you think that a Nasod having feeling, try telling that to Proto who's in love with him."

"Woh, woh, woh. A Nasod code that also has feelings?" I looked at him questionable and he only threw up his arms and cringed a bit in regret for doing that.

"Don't look at me, I'm not the one that you should be questioning. By the way, how's Blaze doing anyway?"

"He's doing fine so far but his repairs will take some time. I guess they were worse than I thought." They only nodded and I grabbed a muffin off of the plate before sitting up.

"Where are you going?" Raven called after me and I turned my head to him.

"It's been to many years since I last say my little- big brother. I think it would be nice if I got him something nice." I went out the door and made my way down to the market section of the town and it was bustling with the Ponggos. I walked through the place and observed the citizens exchanging for their goods and children running around and playing with each other when I spotted the accessory shop off in the distance. I entered the door of the shop and marveled at the collection of rings, jewels, and necklaces that the owner has when I heard a feminine voice come from the counter.

"Welcome to my shop. I'm Aida. Please take a look around and see what you'll like." I nodded and started to walk around going to the rings sections but strayed away from it knowing that he wasn't to fond of them and started for the necklaces when someone else entered the shop. Standing upright from my kneeling position, I could see that the other person that had entered was Chi.

"Chi? What are you doing here?"

"I would ask the same for you."

"I'm just here to get something for Blaze, that's all. Now why are you here for?"

"It's nothing that concerns you." I only grinned and pressed on with another question.

"Is it something for Chung?" She started to blush and turned away from me.

"L-l-like I said, it's none of your concern." I only grinned and walked over to her.

"Oh come on, I know you like Chung since Rena told me and there's nothing to be ashamed of it."

"_There's nothing to be ashamed of for lover girl over here."_ I heard a voice and I looked up around the place a bit confused when I heard Chi mumble,

"Shut up."

"Did you say something Chi?"

"Wah? I didn't say anything."

"_Of course she didn't, I said it."_ I eyed her curiously and she tried to ignore it. _"Come one Chi, why don't you introduce us to her."_ She sighed as she gave in.

"Fine. Ember, the two voices that you're hearing is the Zentai artifact that was sealed away from me many years ago." The masculine voice of the two them started to speak up.

"_Well, it's nice to meet you. I'm the solar, or Sun, side of the Zentai artifact and the other one is the Lunar side."_

"_Sun! Stop leering at her chest like that!"_ Both my own and Chi's cheeks turned a light pink as the Lunar side screamed that in our heads.

"_Why do you never pay attention to me no other time except for when there's another cute girl around?!"_ I held back a snicker and Chi only face palmed and the argument started to fade away.

"Well,... That was in interesting introduction. How do those two never make you lose it?"

"Oh trust me, they do get extremely annoying at times but others they do come in handy."

We went through the necklaces when I found one that interested me intently. It was a red gem that was wrapped in a silver coating. On the front of it, the silver was etched out, revealing the red gem underneath it in a pattern of a flame. I looked transfixed on that gem and I took it into my hand and looked at it when something odd happened. The gem inside started to glow when Chi tapped my shoulder.

"Hey, you OK? 'Cause your eyes are starting to glow." I look towards the mirror that was on the wall and I could see that the flame imprint in my eyes were glowing along with the gem. When the light started to fade from the gem, so did the glow in my eyes.

"That necklace has a fire elemental gem inside of it. The way that it reacted tells me that there's some special bond that you have with fire."

I turned around to see that Aida was behind me looking at me with some interest. I shrugged before picking up another one of the same and went up the counter to pay for the two necklaces.

"2,000 ED please." Paying for them I walk out with Chi who had got Chung a necklace similar to mine but the gem was blue and the etching in the front was of wave instead of a flame. We parted ways as Chi made it back to the blacksmiths shop and went back to the house to find that Blaze was awake from his recovery. I ran up to him and hugged him and he hugged me back.

"It's been to long Blaze." I parted from the hug and reached into my pockets to fetch the necklace I got for him. "Here, I've got something for you." I pulled out his hand and placed the necklace inside of it. Removing mine to show him it, he looked at it with a smile before lifting it up by its string and placed it over his head. I placed my own over my head when both of ours started to glow. I look up into his eyes to see that his eyes too were glowing and he looked at mine before the glow faded away.

"Now what was that?" He looked at me funny and I smiled at him playfully.

"The shop keeper, Aida, said that these two gems have the element of fire infused with them and that we both have some special bond between the fire."

"You only get even more interesting Blaze." The Nasod named Proto then materialized above Blaze resting her head in his hair. He looked up and they kissed before he went to tell me who she was.

"Since last time we couldn't really have proper introductions, Ember I would like you to meet Proto." I stuck my hand out and she took it when well all got a message from Eve. I brought up my own console and projected the message.

"_Please gather the up the others and pack our things for the El stone is loaded up and the Black Crow is restocked for the journey back._

_-Eve" _

I closed up the message and I nodded at Blaze as we went off to find the others. We went down stairs as Chung and Chi came through the door with Chung in his new shining ivory white armor and with his necklace that Chi got him around his neck.

"Ah, you back. I was just about to go out and get you two because Eve just contacted me and Blaze to tell us that everything is loaded up and we're ready to head back to Ruben. So pack your things and get ready to move out." They nodded and went up to their rooms to start packing while I went up and to my shared room to strap on my combat vest and ammo pouches before slinging my massive rifle onto my back and plopped down on the couch to wait for the others. About 30 minutes later, we all were ready and we left the pods behind for we didn't need to take them with us and we were heading back to another entrance to the Ponggo village. They had gathered as we left giving their thanks for helping them end their suffering with the fighting going on between them and the Nasods. We crawled through the tunnel that had initially came through to get into the village and exited into a green forest. I pulled up the rear with my rifle at the ready for some safety precautions when we reached the forests edge to come up on a giant green field. We stayed in the outskirts of the field in the shadows of the forest waiting for the ships arrival when the engines sounded in the distance. In no time, a large ship flew over us before banking around to land. Landing, the landing bay opens up to have a ramp extend down with Eve and Oberon following close behind. We broke cover to meet with her and before long, we were back in the air aimed for Ruben. We were shown our temporary bunks and I fell into my own and feel asleep knowing that this will be a long ride back.

* * *

_**Blaze's POV:**_

I was in the bridge with Eve, Raven, and Oberon watching the whole crew work together under Ravens commands and I never knew that he had it in him after so many years. Though theres always been something that I wanted to try when I was on the black crow, what would it be like to have one of those gas masks on and doing all of this. I found extra gas masks and pulled one onto my head and looked around a while and decided to muse Oberon.

"Hey Oberon, how do I look?" He turned towards me and just looked back with a blank expression. "Are you my mommy?" He fidgeted a little and I laughed before pulling the mask off chuckling. With nothing else to do up there, I made my way down to the main deck of the ship.

I sat on the main deck of the ship with my back against a wall looking at the necklace that Ember had given me. Elsword, Aisha, and Rena were down in the cargo bay preparing the El to be dropped back into the El tree while the rest were a sleep. I got up and stretched my arms and the necklace hang down before walking over the railing and looked down at as we passed over the sea of clouds with the few spots were I could see the sea below turn into desert as we crossed over Bethma. I went back to my old spot that I was sitting in and sat back down again and slowly dozed off.

_I could see my village now. After such a long time being with the others on their mission to save the El stone and now I'm back in Eden. Mark was there and everyone I knew was alive and I was happy again. I was happy and was about to run to Mark when he melted away along with everyone else and the houses started to burn around me. I turn around in despair as the houses burned and I could see a lone figure of Banthus laughing at me. I tried to run after him but he seemed to get farther and farther away as the smoke consumed him and started to constrict me before I woke up._

I sat up eyes open as I looked around my surrounding to find that I wasn't in Eden and there was no flaming village and I sat back with some relief.

"Hey Blaze, are you all right?" It was Proto who started up a chat and I flipped down my visor to see her there looking at me worriedly.

"It's nothing to worry yourself on. It was only a bad dream I guess. Though there's this feeling that I'm getting that doesn't add up. I just feel...a bit uneasy." I went into a deep thought as I tried to figure what was wrong.

'_Banthus isn't here, he's dead, and I'm not even in Eden so what is it...wait, what's that smell?_' I take a sniff of the air and my eyes widened as one word came to mind. _'Smoke.'_ I bolted upright and brought my visor back up and Proto materialized behind me.

"Blaze, what is it?" I ignored her as I ran up to the front edge of the ship and looked around on the horizon. "Come on Blaze, tell me what's on your mind that's got you like this."

"Smoke, I smell it and I just have a bad feeling." I continue to search the area until I see a small trickle of smoke rise in the distance and I pull up my console to get Eve on the line and I could see her shift in the bridge.

"What is it Blaze?"

"I have a bad feeling about something and I see smoke rising in front of us in the distance."

"So? They might be setting up multiple fires to cook with."

"It's not even midday yet. Why would they have cooking fires going now?"

"You have a point there. Look, we're nearly there so I'm going to put everyone on stand by so if there's something wrong, we can act on it quickly."

"All right." Eve then closed the channel and I went on to contact Ember and she came up sleepily.

"What is it?" She said groggily.

"We're nearly there so it's about time to wake up but there's also something that's nagging me. Can you come up on the deck with your equipment?"

"Sure thing." She cut communications and a minute later came up with her rifle, vest, and ammo. "So, what do you have in mind?"

"It's just a hunch, but I don't think that we'll just be dropping off the El stone and be on our marry way you know what I mean?" She nodded and leaned her rifle on the wall before sitting next to me.

"Yeah, I know what you mean."

"Though in our first encounter with you, I've been wondering what sized bullet you're using in that rifle of yours."

"Oh this thing? Sure." She undid a strap on a pouch taking a mag. out and slid a bullet out and handed it to me. "There 30mm bullets so yeah, they'll get the job done."

I held the the bullet, which feels like it should be a mini cannon round, in my hands and twisted it around before handing it back.

"Jeez, what type of recoil does that make?"

"Enough to break one of your friends arms if not supported. Chung might be able to fire this with him being able to wield that giant cannon of his, but I don't think anyone else could do it." She picked up the rifle and held it in her hands looking down the sight. "This thing might not be pretty but it's accurate, powerful, heavy, sturdy, and can take a beating. I could probably throw this like a javelin with the butt stock going towards the armored target, hit him crushing the armor depending on the sturdiness of it, break some bones, and if done right maybe even kill him and it still would be fine." I laughed at the image of her throwing it like that knowing that only drastic measures would cause her to do that when I notice that the smoke was much more closer. I got up and rushed over to the side of the railing and leaned over to see a thick cloud of smoke rise up ahead of us. I brought Eve up once more and she seemed a bit worried.

"Eve, how close are we from Ruben?"

"Only half a mile. Why?"

"Well if you haven't noticed, there a giant stack of smoke blowing up. Put the whole ship on red alert and have everyone get ready for a combat." I gritted my teeth as I imagined Ruben on fire and being attacked. I clenched my fist on the railing and bent the metal as the anger rose up inside of me as a red light started to turn and a siren blared getting everyone in high gear.

"Proto, can you check on the others to see if the lines are ready for insertion?" She nodded and left for a second before returning.

"There in position but we're still to high to deploy the lines and we're nearly over the village."

"Good." Shifting over to EmberI can tell that she understood perfectly.

"Blaze, I know what you went through with Eden and-"

"I'm not going to let Ruben have the same fate as Eden has. I'm not going to fail this time." I turned away form her as my anger rose but it lowered as she put her hand on my shoulder.

"And you won't fail. You have your friends this time and you're much stronger now so don't beat yourself over it too much all right. I'll be here for you." She then swung her rifle over onto the railing and got ready to provide fire support when Eve's voice came back online.

"All right we're over Ruben and are beginning our descent. What are you going to do?"

"What I do best," I took a few steps back before charging the rail. "See you guys at ground level!" I vaulted over the rail over the side of the ship and Proto followed close behind me as I went into a free fall. I flipped down my visor and extended my mask as I angled myself down at the village.

'_I'm not going to fail this time.'_ A memory of Eden flashed through my mind. _'I have my friends this time to help me.'_ An image of the friends I made while I was in Eden then came to my mind and a slight tear formed in my eyes. _'I'm not going to let Ruben fall to bandits hands!'_ A final image of Mark came to my head and I was nearing the ground. Extending my arms and legs out to slow me down, I yell out "Flaming Barrage!" The necklace started to glow as my eyes did too before turning into a stark white that penetrated my visor and fire engulfed my body. Spinning around once more, I face the ground again with my fist raised and my body braced for impact.

"Shockwave!" I drove my fist into the ground as I met it sending a shockwave that broke up the earth around me and sent some bandit flying away from the blast and dust every were. I rose up the from the crater that I've created and looked at the bandits ahead. I pull out my sword and extended my blade before charging into combat.

* * *

_**Lowe's POV: **_

'_Jeez why did they have to attack now? This is the fourth raid this week!'_ I block a sword swing with Anne huddled behind me. I cut down the attacker in front of me as I fell to the ground using my sword as a brace. My wounds that I've taken from previous battles still haven't closed up and the strain of battling multiple days straight isn't helping either.

"Lowe, please don't fight further. You're to hurt to go on!" Anne was at my side trying to persuade me to not go on but I shook her off and tried to stand again to only collapse. "Please don't go on!"

"But I must. To protect the village..." I look around to see that the other knights I've been training fight a losing battle when I heard Anne scream. I turn around to see a bandit had his sword raised and I tried to run and block her but my legs and arms failed me. I could only watch as she sat on the ground terrified as he was about to bring his sword down when a giant hole exploded in his chest and he fell collapsed leaving Anne un harmed.

'_What? None of my knights had that much fire power... wait." _ I look up the the sky to see a lone figure falling towards before he impacted the ground sending up a cloud of smoke and a shockwave that shook the ground. I saw from a distance the figure of him stand up in the crater and his eyes were a fiery white with flames all around him. He looked at the bandits with distaste before pulling out two swords and charging to attack the bandits and cut them down with ease.

"Lowe, who is that person?"

"I don't know." Just then, a large airship flew over use and banked around to have it's cargo bay doors open up and multiple lines dropped down to have multiple figures slide down them and went in to engage the rest of the bandits.

'_Could it be?'_

I eyed 6 of the multiple people that came down to join the fight in particular and I smiled as a familiar red headed boy came over to me.

"Lowe, you just stay back and relax all right? Anne please take care of him." I closed my eyes and leaned back down.

'_So, I guess they really did it.'_

"Elsword, he came back Lowe."

"Yes, he did."

* * *

_**Elsword's POV:**_

'_Great when I think I can come back home and have this journey come to a close, bandits had to raid this place!'_ I hacked down another bandit and took a look around to see the others. Ember was high up on the side of the ship plucking away at the invaders and Blaze was really going to town on those bandits. Chung, Rena, and Raven had gone over to help put out the fire with Chi, Aisha, Blaze, and I went over to both protect them and to drive that bandits back. With the fire now a smoking building and the bandits fleeing knowing that they're out classed, Blaze signaled the Black Crow to pick us up to deliver the El stone back into it's rightful place in the grasp of the El tree. The ship flew over us and multiple lines dropped down and we all grabbed ahold of one to be pulled back into the ship."

"Els! Where are you going?" I turn to see Anne running for me and I only waved be for replying.

"I'll be right back, there's just one more thing that we have to do before we return." I was hoisted back into the main hull of the ship when we started to go towards the El tree. The El stone was already mounted in a harness and was positioned over the bay doors and the rest of us, minus Eve and Raven, had donned harnesses to help be lowered down with the El stone to help guid it back into the trees grasp.

"All right, the ships over the tree. Opening bay doors." Eve's voice came over the speaker and we all were hoisted up a little as the doors opened to show the El tree, whose branches were a dead grey and was leafless, was below us. "Lowering guidance team and the El stone."

We all started to lower down and I grabbed the cable I was attached to with one hand and looked down as the tree got closer. Blaze edged the stone over slightly and it landed into the nest of branches that was it's home and quickly life started to spread through the tree. The branches no longer held a sickly dead grey, but now brown with bark. The branches slowly slithered up clutching the El stone and we all hit the release straps to let the harness go and the tree took the full weight of the stone. Leaves sprouted on the once dead branches and soon the light of the El started to shine from the stone. We all were lowered to the ground and undone our harnesses when Eve, Raven, and Oberon come sliding down the lines to accompany us below. The cables retracted and the Black Crow started to ascend into the sky. Everyone enjoyed the spectacle of the El stone and were over joyed that they've completed the journey.

Chung pulled Chi into a deep long kiss and Proto came out to glomp Blaze before kissing him too. Raven and Rena hugged each other and I hugged Eve before looking into her eyes.

"We did it. I can't believe that we have finally got this journey done with." I looked at her sadly as another truth hit me at the same time. I looked up at the others who were having a wonderful time celebrating their achievement and I could only perform a half smile.

"What is it Els?"

"It's just... now that it's over, what are going to happen with the others? What are the other going to do now that their quest is over, that there's nothing else for us to be together for?"

"They all might go their separate ways but we all will be connected through our friendship. If we can remember someone, it doesn't mean that they're going to be completely gone. Besides, I bet we all will stay in touch with each other." She smiled at me and I smiled back before pulling her in to for a kiss.

"If you two are done making out, I think it's time to make our way back to Ruben to celebrate." We pulled away to look at Aisha and I only rolled my eyes.

"Lets get back to my village." We all agreed and we made our way through the forest to be greeted with a welcoming party. Everyone was there to greet us including Lowe who had a crutch under one arm and bandages wrapped around him that made him look like an incomplete mummy when Chief Hagus walked up to us.

"Thank you all of you! You've done so much for us with returning the El stone and I can't thank you enough for this feat." Everyone cheered and I could only scratch the back of my head.

"Well, I couldn't have done it if it wasn't for the others to help out." I motioned my hand at the others and the crowed cheered even more when Lowe came forward.

"I have to say, I had my doubts before if you could bring back the El stone but you've proven me wrong. Though the last I remember, there was only six of you and I count 11 of you. So where did you pick up the five others?"

"Oh them? Well the one with black hair and the robotic arm is Blaze. The girl who's under his arm is Proto. The orange haired one under Chung's arm is Chi, and the other girl next to Blaze is his sister, Ember. Finally the last person who's standing with Eve is her assistant, Oberon."

"Now enough talk and lets get this welcoming party started!" Hagus announced and the entire crowd broke apart in a yell and the party began. I was chewing down on a sandwich as I watched the others have a good time. Some of them conversed with the others while others watched everyone else. Oberon was having a "good" time with the little kids and I couldn't help laugh and point at him.

"Hey Eve, I think Oberon is a big hit with the children!" She turned around to look at what I was pointing at and she giggled to see him sprawled out on the ground with the kids either on top of him or beside him putting him in various strangle holds. We both burst out laughing and I saw both Ember and Blaze conversing with Ember showing off some multi colored tipped bullets before she jumped into a tree.

'_What's she up too?'_ My question was soon answered with a soft thump and a a screech as a rid light flew up into the sky before exploding into a plume of colors. _'Oh, so that's what she was up to.'_

More fireworks started to fly up into the sky and the tree rained down spent cartridges into a pile below and everyone looked up at the spectacle and before long, the party had ended and the 11 of us gathered in a circle to say our good byes. Eve, Blaze, Oberon, and Ember were hoisted into the Black Crow along with Raven and Rena to drop the back at Altera. Chi and Chung had left on their trek back to Bethma and that only left Aisha and I to stay at Ruben

"You stayed behind instead of going with Eve?" I turned towards her and nodded.

"It pained her that I didn't come along but I could always call an airship over to pick me up when I wanted to visit but I think I might stay in Ruben for a while. You?"

"I don't really have anywhere else to go so I guess I'll stay here for a while." I smiled as I looked up to see the airship above us start flying towards Altera. I gave a wave to the airship doubting that they saw it.

"I still can't believe that the hunt is over and peace has returned to Elrios."

"But who knows, maybe our adventure has just started." I turn to her and smirked slightly.

"What? Why are you giving me that smirk for?"

"It's just that we both came so far. Remember we used to fight with each other all the time?"

"Huh, how could I forget."

"And look at us now, barley any bickering with each other."

"Shut it cherry head, I'm starting to get tiered."

"Oh shut up grape head." We both laughed before heading inside to get some rest knowing that there's going to be a lot of reconstruction for some homes around here.

* * *

**Anon: *Comes back with a shotgun* Problem fixed.  
**

**Chung: What exactly did you do?**

**Chibella: And why do you have a shotgun?**

**Anon: *Throws away the shotgun* Nothing... nothing at all**

**Kiyomaru: Got collected all the dead gophers like you asked me to do... *Grumbles***

**Anon: *Sweat drops* Well I've got to run now! Review and have thee oreos and cookies! *Hides***


End file.
